Concerns Don’t Deter Cities From Applying for Google Fiber
When the Mountain View, Calif., City Council took up the issue of whether to apply for Google Fiber recently, City Councilman Jac Siegel criticized the process. But that Silicon Valley city, like all 33 others the company invited to apply for the high-speed broadband service, is applying, said a company spokeswoman.
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"I don’t like their modus operandi at all,” said Siegel (http://bit.ly/1rFrw0F) at a webcast April 24 council hearing. Google is headquartered in Mountain View. “It’s a typical Google move, which is a bull-in-a-china-shop approach, where they come to the city and say, ‘This is take it or leave it,’ and we'll decide whether we'll give [Google Fiber] to you, instead of saying, ‘Let’s work together. Tell us what your concerns are, and come up with a mutually agreeable solution.'”
Siegel was referring to Google Fiber’s process for considering 34 cities as candidates to get high-speed broadband. Cities were asked to complete a checklist, including agreeing to long-term leases that allow 9-by-28-by-12-foot network huts, and telling Google if their regulatory process would fit with the highly streamlined system the company wants. As Thursday’s deadline to submit the checklists approaches, cities eager for faster broadband service haven’t been deterred by issues like processing permits more quickly or allowing the huts. At the hearing, Mountain View’s city council ended up voting unanimously to go ahead with the process. “If the City Council decided to pass on fiber in Mountain View, there would be hell to pay with the residents,” said Mike Kasperzak, a council member who also worried that turning down Google Fiber would turn off AT&T, which has said the city is a possible location for U-verse with GigaPower (CD April 22 p9).
The checklist process isn’t intended as a take-it-or-leave it scenario, but a way to begin early discussions on what needs to happen, the Google spokeswoman said. Conversations will continue over months to work out issues, she said: But “the network needs huts and the huts need to go somewhere.” The structures will feed fiber to smaller fiber cabinets in neighborhoods. The company is willing to work with cities to decide where the huts should go, place them in unobtrusive publicly owned parcels and screen them, she said. “Unfortunately, if a community doesn’t want huts, there’s no way to get fiber there."
'Give Away the Farm’
Cities eager for more competition and facing public dissatisfaction over broadband services have felt they need to “give away the farm” to get Google Fiber, said Bill Schrier, Seattle’s former chief technology officer. Officials in several cities said they believe Google will like their responses. Overland Park, Kan., learned what happens when cities push back too hard against Google Fiber. When the city council in 2013 delayed signing an agreement with Google Fiber to deliberate further, the company responded by delaying the project indefinitely. “Google finally just said, ‘Oh well, we're going to walk away.’ And Overland Park never got fiber,” Schrier said. The Google spokeswoman said Google Fiber needed to move from the planning to the construction phase for the other communities that were waiting for fiber.
In Nashville, council members aren’t about to let concerns about permitting or the huts deter the project, said Councilman Anthony Davis in an email. “Honestly, they don’t really care how it happens, they just want the service!” said Davis. He wrote a March 4 letter in which all members of the Metropolitan Council wrote department heads, telling them to “put our best feet forward” in trying to convince Google Fiber to come to the city.
Cities, aware that Google doesn’t have to come to them, aren’t in much of a position to protest, said San Antonio Chief Technology Officer Hugh Miller. “If an area doesn’t have their processes in place, it might not be the right time for them to get fiber. Those places that want them to come, there is some desire to look at their own processes and ask is there something we could do differently.”
One city that says it won’t necessarily give Google all it wants is San Jose, Calif. “We're committed to working with Google to help them through any permitting that will be required, but we won’t reduce or eliminate our appropriate standards for issuing permits,” a city spokesman said. He later clarified he was referring to “watering down appropriate regulations that protect the health and safety of our community. No, we won’t do that. If it means expediting with efficient use of staff and systems ... yes, we will consider that, of course.” The city believes it can work out any issues with Google, he said. “They have not been saying anything like, ‘Do it our way or else,'” he said.
Portland, Ore., officials will be raising in the city’s checklist concerns about microtrenching, in which fiber is laid 12 inches below the street and could disrupt street maintenance, said Portland Office for Community Technology Manager Mary Beth Henry. Raising the concern won’t hurt the city’s case, she said. “It doesn’t say you have to do this or we won’t come there. They'll look at the totality of the checklist."
Several cities, including Portland, have yet to go to their city councils about their checklist answers, and issues could arise. Also outstanding is location of the huts. The hut agreements leave that for further discussions. Nashville’s Davis doesn’t believing siting decisions will flame controversy. “While these huts are bulky ... the sheer desire from the community for the service vastly outweighs any foreseen or unforeseen inconveniences from the future infrastructure installation,” he said. Portland will try to avoid allowing huts to go in places that would raise community concerns, said Henry. But, she said of the city known for its public engagement, “I expect a lot of interest in the issue. Have you ever seen Portlandia?”(kmurakami@warren-news.com)