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

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.