Newest Google Fiber Cities Revealed

Super fast gigabit Internet from Google is coming to Atlanta, Charlotte, Nashville, and Raleigh-Durham.

Google today confirmed that it will roll out its super-fast gigabit Internet service in 18 cities across four metro areas: Atlanta, Charlotte, Nashville, and Raleigh-Durham.
The cities are among the 34 that have been working with Google over the past year to see if it made sense to deploy Google Fiber. The search giant was scheduled to pick its new Google Fiber cities by the end of 2014, but delayed that decision because it had "a bit more work to wrap up."






Google, however, said today that "now the really hard work begins."
"Our next step is to work with cities to create a detailed map of where we can put our thousands of miles of fiber, using existing infrastructure such as utility poles and underground conduit, and making sure to avoid things like gas and water lines," Dennis Kish, vice president of Google Fiber, wrote in a blog post. "Then a team of surveyors and engineers will hit the streets to fill in missing details. Once we're done designing the network (which we expect to wrap up in a few months), we'll start construction."


Source:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2475878,00.asp

Google to FCC: if the internet is a Title II utility, let us expand Fiber

Verizon famously said that if the FCC heeds President Obama's urging and declares the internet a Title II utility, it would cause "great harm to an open Internet, competition and innovation." But exactly the opposite of that may happen, according to a letter from Google to the FCC. Mountain View pointed out that if broadband internet access is declared to be a Title II service, then Google Fiber should be granted the same access as other utilities to poles and other essential infrastructure. It went on to say that doing so would actually "promote broadband deployment and competition."

Google is often forced to dig trenches for its Fiber internet, limiting the highly sought service to just a few communities so far. That's because access to poles, ducts and conduits (at a tenth the cost) is limited by federal law to traditional cable TV and telecom suppliers. Google doesn't legally fit that definition, even though it provides internet-based TV and telephone services. It has had pole access hassles in the past with carriers like AT&T, which said last year that that it would cooperate more with Google only when it "qualifies as a telecom or cable provider" under federal law.

Source:

http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/01/google-letter-fcc-title-ii/