'What is Google Fiber?': Everything you need to know about Google's high-speed internet service

Much of the appeal of Google Fiber is in its bandwidth. While the national average for internet access is about 11.5 Mbps, Google Fiber boasts a top speed of 1,000 Mbps (or 1 Gbps) at the highest tier of service.

Like most broadband internet services, Google Fiber is a shared network, which means that the speed you can achieve depends upon how much data your neighbors are using at the same time. But because Google Fiber is built to support 1000 Mbps, the bandwidth is so high that it's unlikely any individual customer's bandwidth would be affected by other customers.

The pricing for service varies by region, but most Google Fiber customers can expect to pay about $50/month for 100 Mbps service and $70/month for 1000 Mbps. Google Fiber also includes an option for cable television, which adds about $90/month to the basic plan. In all cases, the pricing is all-inclusive and billed month-to-month, with no annual service contracts, fees for rental equipment, or monthly data caps.

Since Google has pulled back plans to deploy Google Fiber widely across the US, and pulled out of several cities it attempted to deploy in, critics have occasionally labeled the initiative a "failure."

While this at least represents a notable change of course for the company, one industry insider told Business Insider that Google Fiber's presence in Austin, Texas, in particular, has had a positive effect on the local broadband industry, spurring competition and even growth.

Dustin Bolander, CIO of IT services company Technology Pointe, told Business Insider: "Here in Austin, we have seen some of Google's competitors cut prices by as much as 50% in response to the hype that accompanies Google Fiber."

• 'What is Google One?': Everything you need to know about Google's paid storage service
• How to use Google Analytics: A beginner's guide to Google's service for website-traffic analytics
• 'What is Google Express?': A guide to Google's online shopping service
• How to set up Google Assistant on your iPhone or Android phone