International Trade Today is a Warren News publication.

Portland, Oregon, city commissioners approved a franchise agreement...

Portland, Oregon, city commissioners approved a franchise agreement with Google Fiber, making it the first of the new group of cities (CD May 9 p8) being considered for the high-speed broadband service to reach such an agreement, a company spokeswoman…

Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article

If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.

said. Under the agreement OK'd Wednesday, Google agreed to pay the city the standard 5 percent franchise fee that other utilities pay (http://bit.ly/1poHekk), should it be selected. “We don’t talk about being a ‘world-class city’ all that often, but I really want world-class neighborhoods,” said Portland’s nonpartisan mayor, Charlie Hales, in a statement to us. “Google Fiber to the home would go a long way toward that. And if we can break down the digital divide, and serve low-income neighborhoods and communities equally, we can do great things in the coming years.” Google is evaluating other cities and aspects of building in Portland, and is on track to decide where to build next by the end of the year, said the company spokeswoman.