Irvine residents this week were eligible to sign up for new technology that will significantly boost web speed for their devices, Google officials said Friday.
Google has been rolling out the new Wi-Fi 7 technology with Atlanta and Irvine customers getting access to it now.
Nick Saporito, GFiber Head of Product, told City News Service in an interview Friday that Google has been “on a journey to replace our entire network” with Irvine customers now eligible for services supporting up to eight gigs.
The Wi-Fi 7 technology is “really a sea change” that will be a “game change for our customers in the Irvine market,” Saporito said.
Irvine customers will “really benefit from having multiple devices streaming at the same time,” Saporito said.
Perhaps the most obvious way they will benefit is while viewing live-streamed video, he said.
“With the advent of live-streaming when Netflix hosts a live event like a fight … we see a surge in traffic,” Saporito said.
That can lead to a choppy stream, but the new technology will take care of that.
“We’re really building our network to adapt to changes in consumer behavior, particularly around live-streaming, and also streaming on multiple devices at the same time,” Saporito said.
The new high-tech tools also make it easier for some workers to get their job done at home, Saporito said.
“For instance, a data engineer who works in the cloud environment can really benefit from these faster speeds,” Saporito said.
Also, “creative professionals” can also benefit from multi-gig speeds as well, he said.
“The main driver on our network is live-streaming,” Saporito said. “It’s very bursty — it comes and goes very quickly and we’ve designed our entire network around that.”
Gamers accustomed to plugging in a device into an ethernet connection to fetch faster connections will also benefit from the new Wi-Fi technology, Saporito said.
GFiber Customers can go to the company’s website to upgrade with three plans in Irvine. One gig will cost $70 monthly, 3 gigs is $100 and 5 gigs is $150.