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I think you're absolutely right. I work for Google, and I know no details of this other than publicly available, but this is my personal opinion: My understan

by dmayle 14y ago

I think you're absolutely right. I work for Google, and I know no details of this other than publicly available, but this is my personal opinion: My understanding is that Google is wiring up city buildings with high speed internet for free in the areas where they install. I don't know about the rest of you, but if Google offered to give me free gigabit internet, and in exchange all I had to do was give them space for the equipment, and provide the electricity costs, I would be jumping on the opportunity.

deleted 14y ago
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Splognosticus 14y ago
Yeah. From the agreement: 6. Obligations of Google (g) Provide the services in Section 4(a) to City for up to a total of three hundred (300) locations and other governmental buildings throughout the City, to be identified by City. When such locations are passed by the Project construction, the City or other designated governmental entity may connect the locations to the Project at its expense, and then receive the Section 4(a) services free of charge. The services in Section 4(a) are of course gigabit fiber internet. This is probably the most disingenuous thing I've ever seen on Ars Technica.
- mbreese 14y ago
  The context of the article is that a former FCC official was claiming that Google Fiber is an example of what can happen when the government gets out of the way of private enterprise; that Google Fiber shows that deregulation is the way to go. In that context, the Ars article is meant as a counterweight to that pure free-market argument. It seems to me that the reality is that Google Fiber represents great cooperation between the Kansas Cities and Google. Yes, Google gets subsidized access to buildings, right of ways, etc... Yes, the Cities get free service. And the rest of the country gets jealous. Overall though, I think that is also part of the grand experiment. Google wants to know if it is possible to build a profitable gigabit network, but also how do to do it. Part of that is navigating the governmental bureaucracy and lowering the barriers to entry. I think that if the Google Fiber experiment works, we'll see the corporate/government cooperation model used as a template for other roll outs in the future, not just from Google.
  - Splognosticus 14y ago
    It's the part where he writes, "...Kansas City's support for Google's network went well beyond deregulation to outright corporate welfare," that I found striking. Maybe it's just a poor choice of words but it seemed to me like it set the tone of the article as a condemnation of Google building out their network at the expense of the taxpayers, and completely ignoring that they were providing what would from any of the established telcoms be a very expensive service to the city in exchange.

by dmayle 14y ago

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

Splognosticus 14y ago

Yeah. From the agreement: 6. Obligations of Google (g) Provide the services in Section 4(a) to City for up to a total of three hundred (300) locations and other governmental buildings throughout the City, to be identified by City. When such locations are passed by the Project construction, the City or other designated governmental entity may connect the locations to the Project at its expense, and then receive the Section 4(a) services free of charge. The services in Section 4(a) are of course gigabit fiber internet. This is probably the most disingenuous thing I've ever seen on Ars Technica.

mbreese 14y ago
The context of the article is that a former FCC official was claiming that Google Fiber is an example of what can happen when the government gets out of the way of private enterprise; that Google Fiber shows that deregulation is the way to go. In that context, the Ars article is meant as a counterweight to that pure free-market argument. It seems to me that the reality is that Google Fiber represents great cooperation between the Kansas Cities and Google. Yes, Google gets subsidized access to buildings, right of ways, etc... Yes, the Cities get free service. And the rest of the country gets jealous. Overall though, I think that is also part of the grand experiment. Google wants to know if it is possible to build a profitable gigabit network, but also how do to do it. Part of that is navigating the governmental bureaucracy and lowering the barriers to entry. I think that if the Google Fiber experiment works, we'll see the corporate/government cooperation model used as a template for other roll outs in the future, not just from Google.
- Splognosticus 14y ago
  It's the part where he writes, "...Kansas City's support for Google's network went well beyond deregulation to outright corporate welfare," that I found striking. Maybe it's just a poor choice of words but it seemed to me like it set the tone of the article as a condemnation of Google building out their network at the expense of the taxpayers, and completely ignoring that they were providing what would from any of the established telcoms be a very expensive service to the city in exchange.