Google Rumored To Announce Google Fiber Expansion In Austin, Texas, On Tuesday

Google appears set to announce that Austin, Texas, will be the latest city to get its much-coveted Google Fiber Internet service thanks to a series of well-publicized publicty blunders related to the announcement.

Ever since Google announced it would be starting its own Internet service in the Kansas City area, consumers across the nation have been clamoring to get their hands on the service’s extremely fast download speeds -- reportedly up to 100 times faster than competing services. Now, it seems that the first new area to receive the service will be Austin.

Rumors of Google Fiber’s expansion to Austin have been making the rounds online over the past few days. On Friday, Venture Beat posted an invitation to a Tuesday joint announcement by Google and the City of Austin, fueling widespread speculation that Google would be bringing Google Fiber to the Texas capital.

Then, on Saturday morning, Google Fiber’s City’s page briefly carried a banner reading “Google Fiber’s Next Stop: Austin, Texas.” According to Engadget, the announcement appeared for a only few hours and was announced by someone with the author name “SoAndSo.” It’s either an elaborate hacking hoax, or someone at Google must have jumped the gun.

That alone would be enough evidence to all but confirm that Tuesday’s conference will be related to Google Fiber, but that isn’t all that has happened. On Monday, Engadget received a press release from Gig.U, a coalition of research universities, congratulating Google on its Google Fiber expansion.

“Today, Google announced it will add Austin, Texas, to the Google Fiber project, joining Kansas City, Kansas and Missouri, as American communities that have the power to bring next generation networks home,” the press release read.

It seems that Gig. U jumped the gun on the Google Fiber announcement as well, because according to Venture Beat, the organization soon removed the press release from their own website. It seems likely Gig.U is in on the Google Fiber announcement and simply sent out their press release a day early.

All in all, this makes Google’s expansion to Austin one of the worst-kept secrets in the tech world. Either way, tech fans will know for sure on Tuesday morning when Google and Austin make their official annoucement.