Google Fiber to Build on iProvo Services to Deliver Gigabit Speeds to Community
Google Fiber will start offering its services to Provo, Utah, this fall with free basic broadband speeds for at least seven years, said the company in a blog post Thursday (http://bit.ly/19nsTKA). Google Fiber and Provo closed a deal July 23 to provide gigabit-speed fiber service to the city (CD July 24 p18. Mayor John Curtis announced the plan in April to bring Google Fiber to Provo (CD April 18 p18). “Similar to closing a home before you sign a name on a dotted line, you need to figure out the things you are going to improve and how they going to improve before closing the deal,” Deputy Mayor Corey Norman told us. Google Fiber will be available to the city’s 112,000 residents, he said.
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Customers will get up to 5 Mbps downstream and 1 Mbps upstream for free, with an option to pay $70 monthly for gigabit speeds, said Google Fiber. Provo residents can also pay $50 a month for Google TV, said Norman. Google Fiber wanted to partner with Provo because the company was seeking places where there is “a lot of demand” and “people are excited about using faster Internet,” said a company spokeswoman. “We are already in Kansas City and we are also going to bring the service to Austin and Provo,” she said. “In all three of these areas, you have a community that is excited about gigabit Internet and has ideas about how to use a gig.” Norman said the new service will provide residents with opportunities to do new things. “Here in this community, we have an incredibly entrepreneur-centric people,” he said. “We have kids who think out of the box and several students who are starting their own businesses. This gives them an additional tool."
Google Fiber is building onto the iProvo network established by community leaders 10 years ago, which created two fiber rings around the community for $40 million, said Norman. With the city no longer able to afford the $277,000 a month for the bond funding the network, current mayor Curtis instituted a $5.35 monthly utility fee on each customer’s electric bill, said Norman. Google Fiber offered to upgrade the network to gigabit speed for all residents rather than purchasing the bond, he said. “We had to assess much of the fiber to find out what was good and needed to be replaced prior to Google coming in and finalizing the purchase.” Google did a “tremendous amount of research” and knew what it was “getting into,” said Val Hale, Utah Valley Chamber of Commerce president, in an interview. “The hope is that people will get the Internet and choose to upgrade to a fast gigabit speed,” said Hale. “It’s a great deal, and their business model is once people get the service, they will want to pay a little bit more to upgrade to the high speed and add Google TV, which would make this a profitable venture for Google."
With Google Fiber coming to more suburbs of Kansas City, Mo. (CD Aug 6 p10), the Utah Telecommunications Open Infrastructure Agency said it hadn’t had discussions with Google Fiber to expand its service to UTOPIA’s networks, said Gary Jones, the agency’s chief operating officer. UTOPIA serves Utah municipalities around Provo, including its “sister city,” Orem, said Jones. “Both UTOPIA and iProvo went into their projects to create infrastructure that was not being delivered by the private sector in a timely manner,” said Jones. “Google could do this with us, but our cities are still trying hard to believe that the network should remain open and not be a closed network where one provider takes over."
Google Fiber is also in discussions to bring gigabit service to Brigham Young University in Provo, said Norman. “The question is how does gigabit speed work with the systems that BYU already has in place,” said Norman. “You can’t go anywhere in the city without BYU having some influence, and we are trying to work in concert with one another to make sure we do things that are beneficial to the city and the university.” Google is interested in bringing this service to the college, said a spokeswoman. “We have a good relationship with BYU and we're in ongoing talks about several different kinds of partnership opportunities.” (sfriedman@warren-news.com)