The new program by Google Fiber is part of the White House’s and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) national initiative to provide Internet access to school-aged kids and families living in HUD-assisted housing across the United States. Under this initiative, those living in public and affordable housing will be able to access Google Fiber’s high-speed Internet at the cost of $0 per month with no installation fee. The team at Google Fiber made an initial attempt at a similar initiative through its work with the Housing Authority of the City of Austin (HACA) and saw over 90 percent of HACA residents register for the program. Earlier this year, Google announced a major expansion of Google Fiber, with a planned expansion to 18 cities across four additional metro areas, including Atlanta, GA; Charlotte, NC; Nashville, TN; and Raleigh-Durham, NC. According to blog post, the program will kick off in all of those cities with the exception of Charlotte and with the addition of Kansas City, MO. With the ubiquity of the Internet and of digital devices, Internet access has increasingly become a necessary human right; however, for many in the United States (and around the world), the costs associated with digital connectivity can be financially straining, especially for families making less than $30,000 a year. This new initiative by Google Fiber is an attempt to equip families with the vast knowledge and capabilities that the Internet can bring. And this certainly isn’t the first time Google has stepped up make the Internet a public commodity – last December, the company announced a partnership with the New York Public Library to provide data connections for 10,000 households in New York City. Read more about Google Fiber’s announcement here.
