The service is currently installed and active at public facilities, such as Austin City Hall, the One Texas Center, the Long Center for the Performing Arts, the Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders, Travis High School, the Twin Oaks Library and the ZACH Theater. Nonprofits such as the River City Youth Foundation, the Texas Civil Rights Project and the YWCA of Greater Austin are also benefiting from the service.
Oné Musel-Gilley, founder of the River City Youth Foundation's Dove Springs Coding Academy, said without free Google Fiber service, the coding academy would not exist. The ability to run 50-100 devices concurrently requires bandwidth not currently feasible with a traditional broadband connection.
"In the past when we didn't have Google Fiber, our upload and download speeds were very challenging," Musel-Gilley said. "When we had special events we had to purchase additional bandwidth or hot spots to provide Wi-Fi, which can get very expensive."
The importance of technology was demonstrated at the River City Youth Foundation's I Heart Technology Day.[/caption]At the foundation's I Heart Technology Day, hosted Feb. 18, 50 families from the Dove Springs area gathered to learn about the power of the internet in maximizing efficiency in daily life and in guiding a child's academic success. According to Musel-Gilley, between 50-75 devices relied on a Google Fiber connection to make the event a success.
"This is a visible, tangible and noticeable improvement over what we had before," she said.
Nonprofits like the River City Youth Foundation could benefit in other ways from the Community Connections program. By cutting the cost of internet service from its budget, the River City Youth Foundation is able to offer programs like the Dove Springs Coding Academy at no cost to families who qualify. Established in summer 2016, the academy aims to increase the number of young people pursuing careers in computer science by offering coding programs for children in kindergarten through 12th grade.
"A lot of the online tools and apps are great for nonprofits; they are so cost-effective and have best practices built in," Musel-Gilley said. "I hope gigaservice becomes a mainstay because as things get more advanced and sophisticated, we require a faster speed."
In December 2013, a list of 100 sites to receive free Google Fiber through the Community Connections program was finalized by Austin City Council. According to Google Fiber, the remaining sites will go live as construction continues throughout the city to activate Google Fiber.
