In Pursuit of Google Fiber, Cities Signal Willingness to Ease Rules
The biggest problem Google Fiber may encounter from cities as it tries to expand its high-speed network isn’t government regulation, but Salt Lake City’s snowy, cold weather, according to a sampling of five applications we examined that cities filed for the service. As part of its process of considering 34 cities as candidates to get the much-sought service, the company asked cities to fill out a checklist identifying potential issues and whether they could comply with the streamlined regulatory process the company wants. A top potential issue Salt Lake City’s application identified was that “snow and cold weather could ... cause a contractor to temporarily stop working (up to a few weeks) and wait for better weather.” All 34 cities Google Fiber targeted for the service’s expansion planned to apply (WID May 1 p6).
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
As for granting permit approvals, including for large fiber huts to be placed around cities, Salt Lake City and the other four cities whose applications we reviewed for the most part said they would be willing to move as quickly as the company wants, in some cases changing permitting processes for the company, or at least being willing to talk about it. In response to Google’s desire for permits to be valid for 180 days, Durham, North Carolina, said city building permits are good for only 60 days, “but the city is willing to coordinate a longer permit duration of 180 days.” In response to our queries to the 10 largest cities under consideration, Salt Lake City; Phoenix; Portland, Oregon; and Durham and Raleigh, North Carolina, released their checklists. Portland has posted its application on the city website (http://bit.ly/1lYKQq7).
Cities are under pressure to get Google Fiber to get the faster broadband speeds residents are clamoring for, said Bill Schrier, Seattle’s former chief technology officer. An indication came Wednesday night when a parade of residents, businesses, schools and several homeless people lined up to tell Portland city commissioners for two hours to get Google Fiber. The hearing, which was webcast, concerned approving a proposed franchise agreement the city negotiated with Google Fiber, a separate part of the multistep process than resolving permitting issues.
Google agreed to a number of public benefits, including paying a franchise fee of 5 percent of gross revenue, and connecting some nonprofits and community organizations for free, Portland Office for Community Technology Manager Mary Beth Henry told the council. But the focus was on faster service. Nonpartisan Mayor Charlie Hales said Google Fiber had the potential to “change people’s lives for the better.” Miles Ellenby, director of telemedicine at the city’s Children’s Hospital, said Google Fiber would bring the opportunity for high-risk patients to be monitored at home by doctors and nurses, “bringing significant cost savings by shifting people from an institutional setting."
The process, including the checklist responses, isn’t meant to weed out cities, and while projects will begin on a rolling basis as soon as they are ready to go, raising issues wouldn’t necessarily put a city at the back of the line, said a Google spokeswoman. Schrier noted that when the city council in Overland, Kansas, raised some concerns, the company cut off negotiations indefinitely and said it would build in other areas first. The city is still waiting and telling Google it’s still interested in getting fiber, said an Overland spokesman.
Cities Would Work with Google Fiber
Google Fiber’s checklist asked the cities’ positions on several issues, including having permits remain valid for longer, allowing the company to submit one citywide permit request, and a commitment to act on permit applications within 10 days. Durham said it had no issues with any of the requests, saying for instance it could do one review for all 12-by-30-feet fiber huts. Raleigh said its street cut and lane closure permits are valid for only 30 days, but the city “will work with Google to find the best way to harmonize the permit validity period with Google’s needs in construction."
Some cities balked at allowing a citywide permit. “A citywide permit is unlikely based upon the large geographic size of Phoenix (517 sq miles),” said the city, saying that shouldn’t deter Google Fiber. “Fortunately the permitting process is not complicated,” Phoenix said. Salt Lake City said it preferred doing permits by “fiberhood.” Portland said the city “can not agree to a ‘City Wide’ permit but can explore a ‘Neighborhood Permitting’ process.”
Portland nonpartisan Commissioner Amanda Fritz said in an email she’s in charge of permitting issues on the council, but hadn’t been briefed on potential permitting concessions. Fritz asked at the Wednesday hearing why Google Fiber wasn’t being required to pay a public, educational and government (PEG) fee because it would provide cable through the fiber. City Attorney Ben Walters told her city “staff negotiated the best deal it could.” Fritz isn’t going to rock the boat, she said by email Thursday. “I believe the consensus on the Council is that getting fiber is so important, holding out for the PEG fee is not wise.” (kmurakami@warren-news.com)