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Unanimous: Provo Utah Council Approves Google Fiber
symbolset writes "In a unanimous vote the Provo Municipal Council has agreed to a plan to sell the city's troubled iProvo fiber Internet network to Google. Although this makes Provo, Utah the third city to embrace Google's ambitious gigabit fiber to the home plan the existing network will allow the residents of Provo to see faster installation than the others. Google had previously announced plans to proceed immediately on approval."
They city handed the network over for $1, but there are hidden costs, from the article: "Provo taxpayers will still have to pay off a $39 million bond that the city originally issued to build the network. With interest, taxpayers still have to pay $3.3 million in bond payments per year for the next 12 years. ... The city will have to pay about $722,000 for equipment in order to continue using the gigabit service for government operations ... The city also has to pay about $500,000 to a civil engineering firm to determine exactly where the fiber optic cables are buried ... Google will lease the network to Provo city for free for 15 years."
Because it takes a special company to provide 'family size' bandwidth in Utah!
Living in the metro SLC area, it makes more sense to have Google Fiber at the University of Utah. And, there is no way in hell I would move to Provo. Hopefully the fiber will spread.
The city also has to pay about $500,000 to a civil engineering firm to determine exactly where the fiber optic cables are buried...
Wtf, don't they have the installation project plans in the first place? This is the kind of incompetence that really pisses me off.
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Really, Provost Utah voted to accept Google fiber.
Was there ever any doubt that they would?
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Not a bad deal, at least as far as Google goes. Considering what Google charges for the 7/yr 5mb service (which is just a $300 buildout fee), the city basically just covered the cost for that. Free gigabit service to 25 public institutions (schools, universities etc).. not bad. And Google is going to finish building out to homes that were not part of the original build contract. All in all, not bad. Especially if you look at iProvo's history - the city has been stuck with the bond payments the entire time, this just actually gets them something for holding that debt.
The city council must have breathed a HUGE sigh of relief.
Don't expect us.
What if I do the same thing, and I do get different results?
Nobody believes internal IT people for some reason, but outside consultants telling the same exact story as internal sources makes it more believable.
It's called an audit. You bring in outsiders to verify what the insiders are telling you is the truth. If I'm a third party making an investment, I'm not going to rely on the good word of the people I'm buying from when millions of dollars are at stake.
It's likely they would have to do this anyway, for a good portion of the network. Even if you think you know exactly where a cable is, before you start digging to extend the network you have to locate it and locate any other utilities around it. One of my clients has done all kinds of pipe and cable laying across the U.S. When he explained the process they had to go thru to push a new fiber conduit in to a telco exchange in LA, I was like screw that. They were pushing a few hundred feet of pipe past thousands of other cables with only a few feet of clearance. One mistake and you cause a national communications blackout.
the hinterlands of kansas or bumbefuck missouri. for a while there it seemed like every new network technology from fios to dark fiber ended up in some rural midwestern or southern shithole hellbent on forwarding an e, i, or cyber industry and more than willing to hemmorage taxpayer money in the face of a familiar brand.
Good people go to bed earlier.
What are you bitching about? Free Internet service for 15 years, and free completion of the failing and overbudget project that you were paying for. Now you just have to pay down the costs committed to already, not the growing behemoth and continued maintenance costs for the next 15 years.
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$40 million to have Google Fiber free for 15 years. Yeah great deal *eye roll*
Wtf, don't they have the installation project plans in the first place? This is the kind of incompetence that really pisses me off.
Project plans frequently do not accurately document where the cable was actually placed. My father worked in engineering for AT&T for several decades planning jobs like this. He always had to go check what the plans said against what was drawn on the engineering documents. What the guys in the field do often does not match what the engineer designed. Furthermore since Google is essentially buying this cable they need to audit what they are actually buying. When you are investing millions of dollars you don't take anyone's word for it, you have someone go out and check to see that the actual infrastructure is something close to what the plans say it should be.
This is exactly the opposite of incompetence. This is exactly how a rational buyer should behave when buying an expensive asset.
That mismanagement wasn't coincidental. Government is designed to make and enforce rules. It's not designed launch and run tech companies. Government is supposed to be very fair, open, democratic (slow, ineffcient, slow). That's not the type of organization that does a fiber build out well.
From the story: Curtis admitted that the construction company that installed the fiber cables underground did not keep records of where they buried all of them.
We'll take $25k off your bill if we don't need to document where we buried the cables
Sounds good to me
The NSA Is Building the Country’s Biggest Spy Center (Watch What You Say) nearby in Bluffdale Utah. There is no coincidence.........
One mistake and you cause a national communications blackout.
Or worse, you kill somebody. This was caused by a sub contractor for Time Warner installing fiber to a new office building.
Another day, another update to a Google android app.
UTOPIA was not government run, its a private entity. The participating cities just footed the bill in the form of bonds for the UTOPIA buildout. One of the biggest problems UTOPIA faced was the constant legal battles with Qwest(Now CenturyLink) and Comcast over right of way issues. Provo was different in that Provo has their own power plant, which has easements all over the city for power lines. When they installed the fibre for iProvo, they used those easements and just plowed through everything that was in their way. Made for no legal issues for Provo City to lay the fiber. Not so for the rest of the UTOPIA cities... maybe they should have worked out a deal with UtahPower (Pacific Power Corps)?
UTOPIA was setup as the provider of the fiber infrastructure and would manage it, then ISP's would have to pay a monthly connect fee per subscriber that ISP had. It was never managed by any Government agency, sorry to burst any bubbles over "government mismanagement". Perhaps the real mismangement was in allowing Qwest the ability to sue over the same issue in every city Utopia was headed to.
Yes it was, and yes they are. I wonder if Google is using this as an experiment before buying all of UTOPIA?
I won't dispute it being a good deal. However, residences only get 7 years free, the city is getting 15 years at no cost.
The existing Provo network is buried. You can bet that when Google finishes the job, they'll be doing it by hanging fiber, not burying it, as they are for their other installations. Provo will likely be the only hybrid Google Fiber installation for some little while. It will be interesting to see what the differences are in service availability between buried and hung in the same city.
it's a private entity
Who owns it? According to UTOPIA.org, 16 city governments own and run it.