Google Fiber Abandons Free 5Mbps Service In Kansas City, Pushes New $50 100Mbps Tier
Customers who chose this tier had to pay a $300 construction fee upfront, but afterwards could enjoy 5/1 speeds at no additional cost. While we wouldn’t recommend trying to push multiple Netflix streams with such a limited connection, it’s wholly sufficient for the needs of many people and you can’t really argue with free (after the one-time fee of course).
But Google Fiber parent Alphabet has to make money, and offering its service for free isn’t exactly sustainable in the cutthroat ISP market. And many customers likely were turned off by the rather hefty upfront costs to get their foot in the door for “just” 5/1 internet service.
In its place, Google Fiber is now offering a 100Mbps symmetrical (upload/download) tier for $50/month. There is still a construction fee attached to the plan, but in this case it’s a third of the cost at just $100. The upside is that if you keep your service for a year, the installation fee is waived. And unlike other carriers, you also won’t pay a rental fee for the Google Fiber-provided hardware used to connect to the internet.
If the 100Mbps service still isn’t fast enough for your needs, you can always upgrade to the premier 1Gbps service that will run you $70/month. And if you want to add TV programming to go along with your gigabit internet, that’ll cost you $130/month.
If you currently have the 5/1 internet plan through Google Fiber, you have until May 19th to keep using the service. After that point, you’ll need to upgrade to the 100Mbps plan, the 1Gbps plan or take your chances with another ISP.
