Google Ready to Break Ground on Kansas City Fiber Network This Fall
SAN FRANCISCO -- Google is on track to start building its Kansas City fiber network in a month or two, an executive said Wednesday. The biggest surprise in the Google Fiber for Communities program has been difficulty negotiating pole attachments for a company that doesn’t consider itself to fall under the Communications Act regulatory titles for telcos and cable providers that the FCC has given the right to attach, Rick Whitt, Google’s Washington telecom and media counsel, told us after speaking at the NATOA conference.
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Service providers in the market have “been taking a wait-and-see attitude” toward Google’s network, Whitt told the audience. “We've not seen any strong signs of obstruction from them, which is good,” he said. Google will keep and run the network as an ISP for residents, small businesses and “anchor institutions,” Whitt told us. Other ISPs will be welcome to use the network, he said. None have approached Google, but “we anticipate some will,” Whitt said.
The program came about when Google co-founder Sergey Brin was briefed about company comments to the FCC in preparation for the National Broadband Plan, Whitt said at the conference. They recommended that the federal government create demonstrations of 1 Gbps fiber networks around the country, he said. Whitt quoted Brin as having asked, “'Why are we asking the government to do this? ... Why don’t we go out there and do this ourselves?"
Google chose the location based on wanting to learn to work with local authorities, seeking a varied mix of communities, and desiring a locality that was “business-friendly,” Whitt said. He said Kansas City, Kan., “knew how to work at Google speed” and was “ready and willing to make this happen.” Service will start in at least parts of the city some time next year and will eventually be extended next door to Kansas City, Mo., he said.
"Working with people in Kansas City has been terrific,” Whitt said. There’s “a long way to go” but the start of construction is “coming very soon,” he said. Whitt told us the company “for now” is “rolling with” problems getting pole owners to the table. Google has made progress, “but it has taken longer than we expected,” and “it’s an ongoing situation,” he said.
Just Monday, a Mayors’ Bi-State Innovation Team was named to look into using the network to advance economic development, healthcare, education and libraries, said Mayor Joe Reardon, of Kansas City, Kan. The network has “allowed our communities to start thinking bigger again” in tough times that have narrowed cities’ visions, he said.
Later, Craigslist founder Craig Newmark said his social activism through CraigConnects.org is stressing ways to use digital communications to keep veterans and members of the U.S. military in touch with relatives, healthcare providers and job opportunities. This can be a problem especially in rural places lacking broadband, he said. The military angle is a good start toward helping broader layers of isolated people, Newmark said. He said he’s also taking part in the National Dialogue on Improving Federal Websites running now through Sept. 30 at http://web-reform-dialogue.ideascale.com/, because he favors “better customer service from the federal government."
"The ways of my people,” technology geeks, “are very different from the ways of Washington, which I don’t get,” Newmark said. “There’s a lot of nuance and subtlety and diplomacy that I don’t get.”
Senators from New York and Minnesota asked Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt during an Antitrust Subcommittee hearing Wednesday if the company would consider their constituents’ communities as the next potential test sites. At the hearing Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., praised Google’s fiber project and asked Schmidt if the company would consider expanding broadband offerings to New York communities. Schmidt said the company would consider communities in the Hudson Valley. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., lobbied for Google to consider Duluth, Minn., as the next test site for its fiber project.