Campus in right location for Google Fiber, may solve students’ Wi-Fi woes
St. Edward’s University should have no problem getting Google Fiber when it becomes available next year, said Benjamin Hockenhull, director of digital infrastructure at St. Edward’s.
Sign-ups for the service begin in December. To sign-up, all a person needs to do is visit the Austin section of the Google Fiber site and register. If enough members of the St. Edward’s community sign up for Google Fiber, the university could be on it sometime in 2015, Hockenhull said. He added that the location of campus helps, too.
“I don’t think we will see any problems and that our fiberhood would likely make because we are smack dab in the middle of a great part of Austin with people who are interested in technological innovation and have the means to pay for it,” he said.
South Austin will be the first area of the city to receive the service. The area will be divided into so-called fiberhoods where each community will sign up for the service and build up enough demand for Google to install the service.
Google announced that it would bring Google Fiber to Austin on April 9, 2013 at an event with Gov. Rick Perry and Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell.
Google Fiber is expected to be 100 times faster than what current Internet service providers offer on the market today.
Currently, the service is offered in Kansas City, Kan., Kansas City, Mo., and Provo, Utah.
Last year, St. Edward’s submitted an application for the Internet service to the City of Austin to receive Google Fiber for free for 10 years. The Austin City Council approved the application earlier this year.
Frost believes it is the strong values of generosity that St. Edward’s upholds and demonstrates in the surrounding community that will make Google Fiber possible.
“You guys are the leaders for tomorrow,” Davis said. “Giving students at St. Edward’s Google Fiber is a benefit to the city overall.”
Hockenhull and Davis agree that Google Fiber will help students in their daily lives at the university and decrease stress that many deal with from problems with the existing Internet service.
“The connection here is pretty patchy and that is frustrating,” senior Barbara Swyryn said.
Google Fiber will not be the sole Internet service provider at St. Edward’s. It will replace one of the two current providers.
