Google Fiber is working with city leaders to build the company’s fiber infrastructure in Kansas City, Mo., Austin, Texas, and Provo, Utah, said Derek Slater, Google manager-government relations, in a blog series posted Monday (http://bit.ly/1bF6yNe). Google Fiber’s conversations with city leaders focus on access to infrastructure and local infrastructure maps and expedited construction permits, Slater said. To build Google Fiber’s network, cities need to “ensure that new providers can use existing poles and conduit,” he said. Google works with the city, the local electric utility and phone company where applicable to figure out which poles and conduit can be used for Google Fiber and the groups make an agreement on a “fair market price” to lease the space,” Slater said. The city needs to provide accurate maps about poles and conduit, existing water, gas and electricity lines, so Google Fiber can safely build its fiber network, he said. Construction of fiber networks can take a while to finish, said John Toccalino, Google Fiber construction manager, in a separate blog post (http://bit.ly/1e6BL9A). First, the company needs to figure out where it can put its fiber, then design the network, and lastly build the network, he said. Every mile of the network needs to be planned and diagrammed, and Google Fiber needs to also plan and build backup fiber routes in case there is a break in the network, said Toccalino.

Prometheus Radio Project will continue helping groups prepare applications for the low-power FM filing window. The window is scheduled to open Tuesday, but it may be delayed if the government shutdown continues (CD Oct 4 p2). “Until we hear otherwise from the FCC, we are still answering questions, doing engineering studies, and supporting groups to collect all the documents they'll need to apply,” Prometheus said in a newsletter. Its technical and engineering team has been working to provide up-to-date assistance, “even though the FCC’s own database has been taken offline,” it said. Its applicant support team is answering phones, it said. Prometheus is among LPFM advocates concerned about applicants’ access to the filing window.

Major Internet governance players have “strong concern over the undermining of the trust and confidence of Internet users globally due to recent revelations of pervasive monitoring and surveillance,” they said in a joint statement Tuesday (http://bit.ly/GLBBZd). Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers, Internet Engineering Task Force, Internet Society, World Wide Web Consortium and some regional Internet registries urged strengthening and evolving Internet mechanisms, warning against Internet fragmentation at a national level. They also “agreed to catalyze community-wide efforts towards the evolution of global multistakeholder Internet cooperation,” they said. They also said the transition to IPv6 should remain a top priority globally.

There'll be more Internet-connected video devices installed globally in 2017 than there are people on the planet, said the IHS Broadband Technology Service Tuesday in a report (http://bit.ly/GL8NQz). Including tablets, smart TVs, videogame consoles, smartphones, connected set-top boxes, Blu-ray players and PCs, the installed base of Internet-connected devices will swell to 8.2 billion units in 2017, from 4.3 billion in 2013, it said. With the world’s population growing to 7.4 billion people in 2017, “this means that there will be 1.1 Internet-connected video devices installed for each global citizen,” it said. “We're quickly approaching a world where the average broadband household contains 10 connected, video-enabled devices. This means that each TV set installed in a broadband-equipped home will be surrounded by three Internet-connected devices."

Com Dev Europe will provide telemetry, tracking and command transponder equipment to Surrey Satellite Technology for the first six satellites in the Formosat-7 global weather forecasting program, it said. The contract, which is worth nearly $4 million, will be fulfilled at its U.K. facility over two years “and involves the initial build of 14 units with options for an additional 12 units to be ordered in 2013 or 2014,” Com Dev said in a press release (http://bit.ly/17jTFQi). The company’s transponder employs the latest gallium nitride power amplifier technology and digital signal processing techniques, it said. “The design uses commercially available components and is free from ITAR [International Traffic in Arms Regulations] restrictions."

Because of the government shutdown, the five technology companies that filed for declaratory judgments to disclose more data about government surveillance requests have filed a motion to push back their Oct. 21 deadline to respond to a recent government response urging the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court not to allow such disclosures (CD Oct 3 p5). The Department of Justice “cannot continue to work on this matter, including engaging in discussions” with the tech companies’ counsel,” said the response (http://1.usa.gov/1fg1OOE). This could prohibit access to additional information and classified information, which the tech companies may require while composing their joint response, said the motion from Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, Facebook and LinkedIn. If their joint motion is granted, the tech companies said they would file their response within five days of Congress appropriating funds for the Justice Department. At that point, the companies said, all future deadlines could be reset.

The British Film Institute goes live Wednesday with online access to what it calls a “gold mine of great British cinema,” when it debuts its “BFI Player” service. BFI Player will offer a mix of restored archive and newly produced independent movie content, about 60 percent of it free, the rest through pay-per-view. Available only in the U.K., the launch package includes “hundreds” of feature films, with PPV prices ranging from just under $2, to about $5 for library titles, and about $16 and up for new day-and-date releases, BFI said. New releases available on BFI Player will include The Epic of Everest, the 1924 filmed documentary of the doomed expedition to the summit of Mount Everest by George Mallory and Andrew Irvine. The film has been fully restored for a sold-out London Film Festival screening on Oct. 18. BFI Player’s software uses adaptive-bit-rate technology to match picture quality to the broadband speed available for streaming, BFI said. The sound is stereo only, so far. Digital copy, the option to make a permanent copy with restricted access, is “not quite there just yet,” said Ed Humphrey, BFI’s director of digital. UltraViolet for BFI Player is “on the horizon,” he said. The service uses Widevine digital rights management to deter piracy, said Humphrey, an ex-Disney executive. He acknowledged that hardware and software that exploits the “analog hole” can be used to copy any online stream. “I don’t think that on its own the BFI can solve issues of piracy,” Humphrey told us at a BFI Player preview event in London. “It’s my belief that the more legitimate services you offer people, the less they need to pirate.” Evidence from the MPAA suggests “that the more opportunity you give people to buy legitimately the more they will do so,” he said. “That’s our guiding principle. There’s no absolute barrier to copying. If the world’s biggest businesses can’t crack the problem, then we can’t expect to. But the more legitimate sources there are, the less need there is for piracy. Make it available and make it simple to buy.”

Telenor deployed iDirect’s new Velocity product line as the ground infrastructure solution for its new THOR 7 high throughput satellite. Telenor plans to deliver a Ka-band HTS payload “of up to nine Gbps of throughput across 25 spot beams, providing capacity over the North Sea, Norwegian Sea, Mediterranean, Baltic Sea as well as the Middle East,” iDirect said in a news release (http://bit.ly/15YbHrL). The iDirect platform “will enable automatic, seamless spot-beam handover across all beams on the THOR 7 satellite, ensuring continuous mobile connectivity,” it said. Telenor expects to launch the satellite in 2014, iDirect said.

Correction: The amount of money that California Assembly Bill 1299 would provide from the California Advanced Services Fund to bring broadband to public housing is $25 million (CD Oct 7 p5).

Journal Broadcast Group agreed to sell NBC affiliate KMIR-TV and My Network affiliate KPSE-TV -- both in Palm Springs, Calif. -- to OTA Broadcasting, Journal said in a press release Monday (http://bit.ly/1fVpwAX). Palm Springs is the 148th-largest television market, with more than 154,000 TV homes, the release said. Media Venture Partners represented OTA and Kalil & Co. represented Journal, the release said.