> Fiber to whatever suburbs are invited to the party will likely follow after that.
I'm interested to see where in the priority list some of the closer suburbs are. Round Rock, after all, is Dell headquarters. I'd have to imagine there is going to be some strong demand up there.
There's not much data to go on, but in the KC area the schedule for suburban build-outs looks like it's being driven by politics as much as by demographic or infrastructural factors. (Of course, the initial choices of the KC and Austin metros themselves suggest that sort of decision-making.)
In KC, Google's first announced suburban hook-ups were a couple of tiny, affluent suburbs adjacent to KCK and KCMO, likely due to the ease of negotiating the terms of construction. It then announced availability for Olathe, an large exurb on the Kansas side, skipping over the even larger suburb of Overland Park, which is home to Sprint and some other tech firms. Olathe has Garmin, etc., but I don't think corporate tech headquarters are a consideration.
Google has also so far left out North Kansas City, a municipality that's completely surrounded by KCMO, perhaps because it has its own municipal ISP that provides FTTH. I imagine that has made negotiations difficult.
Skipping over OP in favor of Olathe was indeed politically, as well as practically, motivated. The fiber is being hung on existing poles, but Overland Park relies heavily on buried lines to quite a few areas. Additionally, Olathe's city council was very willing to accommodate Google--Overland Park moves more slowly and is likely less accommodating.
They said the roll-out was focusing on Austin City Limits, and more specifically they stated the desire to release Fiber in public buildings (offices, hospitals, schools, etc.).
This paired with the UT Austin teacher video they released leads me to believe it'll be available to the campus area, probably downtown as well (St. Davids main and Brackenridge Medical Center) and probably the surrounding neighborhoods.
Personally, I would be surprised if it went east of I-35, south of Capitol of Texas highway, west of Mopac, or North of 183 in its initial release.
I hope the fiber roll-out will also include the 78758/78759 Austin areas, not just because I live in the area, but also cause Google's Austin office is located there too :).
I would say with out a doubt it'll go east of I-35. East Austin is an up and coming neighborhood. The Hipster demand there will be fierce plus it has a ton of lower income households still which will look good for the free internet (with installation fee) version of google fiber.
Additionally during SXSW a lot of the tech people stay over there. I think one of the reasons Austin was picked was to show off the speed during events like SXSW and Austin City Limits.
I'm not sure that a technology company being in a location necessarily indicates demand. Sure there are some technology enthusiasts in Round Rock, but moreover I think everyone will want fast internet all over Austin and the surrounding areas. I think that demand is likely to be fairly equal throughout once word gets around.
I'm interested to see where in the priority list some of the closer suburbs are. Round Rock, after all, is Dell headquarters. I'd have to imagine there is going to be some strong demand up there.