[Chapter-delegates] Frustrated Cities take High Speed Internet into their own Hands

[Glenn McKnight]

http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2014/03/04/285764961/frustrated-cities-take-high-speed-internet-into-their-own-hands


College Station is right in the middle of Texas -- a few hours by car from
Austin, Dallas and Houston and home to Texas A&M, a major research
university. But if you're in the market for high-speed Internet access,
College Station can feel like the middle of nowhere.

"It's been pretty bleak. You get too far from the university, and it's
nothing," says Andrew Duggleby, co-founder of Exosent Engineering, a
company that designs and builds tanker trucks for the oil industry.

"We're doing three-dimensional computer-aided design, big 3-D models," he
says. "So here we are, this super-advanced engineering company, with all
these technologies -- but then it can't get past the walls."

There is no high-speed Internet access in Exosent's part of College
Station, Duggleby says. If he wants to show one of his 3-D models to a
client for review, he has to copy the files onto a portable hard drive and
put it in the mail.

James Benham, a city councilman in College Station, is worried that
high-tech jobs are fleeing to Austin and other cities with faster and
cheaper broadband. "We have lost countless companies to other towns because
we cannot provide the level and cost of connectivity," Benham says.

Even in central Texas -- not exactly a hotbed of activist government --
cities are thinking seriously about how to upgrade their broadband
infrastructure.

"We have to deliver consistent electricity and water. I think we have to
lump [connectivity] in with the critical infrastructure that we at least
have an obligation to think about and plan for," Benham says. "The worst
thing, I think, a city could do is sit back and do nothing and wait."

*The Private Approach*

Right now, only a handful of American cities have superfast fiber-optic
networks. Many others are looking on with "visceral jealousy," says Susan
Crawford, a visiting professor of intellectual property at Harvard Law
School. "And it's disrupting what has otherwise been a very smooth,
unbroken, complacent approach to communications in America."

Crawford says cities need to take the lead on building fiber-optic networks
because most private broadband providers don't think it's economically
worthwhile.

But cable and telecom companies dispute that. Comcast recently said it
would offer faster speeds -- but only when consumers demand it.

So far, the demand simply doesn't justify the massive investment, says Fred
Campbell, director of the nonprofit Center for Boundless Innovation in
Technology.

"The rush to fiber may be foolhardy," Campbell says. "There's a notion that
we should adopt a 'build it and they will come' strategy. But it can be
more efficient in the long run to meet demand as it occurs."

There is one private company that's making a very big bet on very high
speeds: Google. The company is offering to pay for the construction of
fiber networks that can deliver speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second.

Google Fiber started in Kansas City and is expanding to Austin, Texas, and
Provo, Utah, this year. Kevin Lo, manager of Google Fiber, says those
cities were picked carefully, based partly on their willingness to
streamline their regulations and make it easier for Google to build.

"Building these fiber networks is really hard. It requires hundreds, if not
thousands of miles of brand new construction," Lo says. "It has the
potential to be really disruptive to local communities who aren't ready for
it."

Google Fiber recently said it may expand to nine more metropolitan
areas<https://fiber.google.com/newcities/>,
including Atlanta, Nashville, Tenn., Phoenix and Portland, Ore.
Related NPR Links
[image: Susan Crawford says that in cities like Seoul and Stockholm,
high-speed, high-capacity networks are taken for granted. "It really is
astonishing what's going on in America," she says. "We're falling way
behind in the pack of developed nations when it comes to high-speed
Internet access, capacity and
prices."]<http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2014/02/06/272480919/when-it-comes-to-high-speed-internet-u-s-falling-way-behind>
All Tech Considered <http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/>Author:
When It Comes To High-Speed Internet, U.S. 'Falling Way
Behind'<http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2014/02/06/272480919/when-it-comes-to-high-speed-internet-u-s-falling-way-behind>
[image: Comcast is the largest cable company and home Internet service
provider in the United States. A recent survey found that many Americans
give Internet service providers low marks for
satisfaction.]<http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2014/01/12/261924972/internet-in-america-an-on-again-off-again-relationship>
All Tech Considered <http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/>Internet
In America: An On Again, Off Again
Relationship<http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2014/01/12/261924972/internet-in-america-an-on-again-off-again-relationship>

*Cities Take The Helm*

But even if Google Fiber built out to all of them, professor Susan Crawford
says it would still only reach 3 percent of American homes.

"When it comes to the national picture for high-speed Internet access,
Google is barely a ripple on the surface," she says. "They're choosing
places where they know they'll do well. And they're hoping that other
companies and other cities will take up this mantle."

Indeed, cities that have been left out of Google Fiber are thinking about
how to do something similar on their own.

Ted Smith, chief of economic growth and innovation for Louisville, Ky.,
says when the new Google cities were announced, he got hundreds of emails
asking why the city wasn't chosen. Louisville, he says, is actively looking
for a broadband provider to build a fiber network.

"We've certainly sent the bat signal up to the sky to let people know that
we will be easy to do business with," Smith says.

One thing Louisville will not do, Smith says, is pay for the network
itself. But Chattanooga, Tenn., did: The city's publicly owned electric
company recently spent upward of $300 million on a new fiber-optic network.
Chattanooga's mayor, Andy Berke, says the high speeds are helping attract
new businesses to his city.

"If, as a country, we're going to participate in this next round of
innovation, we have to make sure the infrastructure exists," Berke says.
"Someone's going to have to do this. And it makes sense that cities are
going to lead the way."


Glenn McKnight
mcknight.glenn at gmail.com
skype  gmcknight
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