Google still doesn’t love us, but it turns out Comcast may deliver half of what the search giant teased us with.
You’ll remember some four years ago Google invited communities all over the country to compete to become the one Google chose for its first experiment at delivering internet service at gigabit speeds.
And Evanston leaders got all excited and put together a pitch, only to lose out — after a year of anticipation — to Kansas City.
Since then Google has expanded its efforts to two more towns that aren’t Evanston — Austin, Texas and Provo, Utah.
This week Google announced that it’s looking at 34 towns in nine more metro areas for possible further expansion of the service, and none of those are Evanston, or even in the Chicago area.
But today Multichannel News reports that Comcast is planning to bring its “Extreme 505” internet service to the Chicago area — starting as soon as this April.
The Comcast offer would be roughly half as fast as the planned Google service.
And it won’t be cheap. In areas where Comcast’s 505Mbps is already available, it costs $400 a month. That compares to $64 a month for a 50Mbps plan already available here.
In the meantime, the city has landed a $1 million state grant that is expected to bring gigabit service to a few buildings in the vicinity of Chicago Avenue and Main Street.