Google Fiber Launches in Nashville

Google Fiber has launched services in Nashville, starting with a small number of apartment buildings and condos.

Per Google Fiber’s “apartment finder” for that market, it’s installed at Element Music Row, Icon In the Gulch, Bristol On Broadway, and Rhythm at Music Row, with many other multiple-dwelling units on tap. Google has also opened its first "Fiber Space" store in Nashville, The Tennessean and other local media outlets reported.

Google Fiber confirmed that the initial rollout in Nashville comes from the early progress of its own network buildout in Nashville, and not another example of it using existing infrastructure to reach MDUs as it’s begun to do in Atlanta ahead of its own network deployment.

Google Fiber has already released pricing in Nashville. Its 1-Gig standalone service runs $70 per month, with no install fee for apartments and condos, while its 1-Gig/TV combo starts at $130 per month. Customers can added the recently introduced  Google Fiber Phone service for an extra $10 per month. Google  Fiber is also selling a 100 Mbps service in Nashville for $50 per month.

In addition to Atlanta and Nashville, Google Fiber has also launched service in Kansas City; Austin, Texas; and Provo, Utah; and has committed to deploy in Salt Lake City; San Antonio; and Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham, N.C.

It’s also mulling expansions in Chicago; Portland, Ore.; Los Angeles, San Jose, Irvine and San Diego, Calif.; Phoenix; Oklahoma City; Louisville, Ky.; and Jacksonville and Tampa, Fla.

In Nashville, Google Fiber will come up against incumbent MSO, Comcast, which has identified Nashville as one of a handful of markets that will get gigabit broadband service on the new DOCSIS 3.1 platform later this year. Comcast launched an advanced consumer trial of a D3.1-based service in Atlanta last month. Comcast also offers Gigabit Pro, a fiber-based 2 Gbps residential service, in Nashville to eligible homes (those within one-third of a mile of Comcast’s fiber network).

Nashville is also a deployment city for GigaPower, AT&T's fiber-based platform.