Google Fiber 20 Gig (Early Access)

GFiber Labs participants in the Triangle. NEW: not present on the live site.

Three-year cost of ownership

At $250/mo plus no install fee, this plan totals about $9,000 over three years before any equipment costs. Compare that to a 1 Gbps plan from any provider in the $60–80/mo range, which would total about $2,200–$2,900. Whether the extra bandwidth is worth it depends on the upload work you actually do.

Who this is for

GFiber Labs participants in the Triangle. Symmetric fiber really matters if you upload video, run multi-camera conferencing, or back up large libraries to the cloud.

What you’ll need at home

• A 10 Gbps capable router with multi-gig WAN port (Wi-Fi 7 ideal).
• Cat6a Ethernet cabling between router and any device that needs full speed.
• Multi-gig Ethernet ports or USB adapter on the device measuring speeds — standard gigabit ports will bottleneck.
• 10G SFP+ optics matched to the ONT handoff.
• An ONT (optical network terminal). The provider installs and owns it.