Google has started rolling out its 5Gbps fibre Internet service in three cities in the US at the cost of $125 (R2,250, excl. VAT) a month, which includes an optional Wi-Fi 6 router and up to two mesh extenders. Currently, Google only offers the 5Gbps service to customers in Kansas City, West Des Moines, and the Salt Lake City metropolitan area. The service offers symmetrical upload and download speeds, which will likely be helpful for those who work with large files on cloud platforms.

While Google Fiber also started testing 8Gbps fibre packages in October last year, it hasn’t given any indication of when it will begin offering the speed to its customers. Google Fiber joins the likes of Frontier, which launched a symmetrical 5Gbps package in January 2023. However, Google’s offering may be more enticing to some due to its lower subscription fee. Frontier’s 5Gbps service is priced at $154.99 (R2,790) per month. At that price, customers will be paying roughly $0.03 per megabit of speed, roughly R0.54, while Google’s customers will pay $0.025 or R0.45 per megabit of speed. Frontier’s price also includes installation and a router.