WNA

Google Fiber is ready to expand, reports ArsTechnica. Google has identified nine areas around the country as possible deployment sites. Currently, Kansas City (KS and MO), Provo UT and Austin TX are using Google’s gigabit fiber.

“We’ve invited 34 cities in nine metro areas across the US to work with us to explore what it would take to build a new fiber-optic network in their community,” Google said in an announcement today. There’s no guarantee for any of these cities. It could be fired up by 2015.

To make a difference to Google’s roughly $70 billion in revenue this year, Fiber would need to expand dramatically, notes Reuters. In a city of one million households for example, Google would reap a modest $288 million a year in subscription revenue if 20 percent of families were to sign up for its $120 monthly service.

Google is asking municipal officials to do the following:

• Provide detailed, accurate maps of existing infrastructure like utility poles, conduits, and water, gas, and electricity lines.
  
• Ensure the company can access and put its fiber on existing poles or conduits.
  
• Review permitting processes to make sure cities can handle as much as 100x their usual number of permit requests—once it starts building.
  

For nearly three decades David Olson was Portland’s crusader-in-chief at the city’s cable office, challenging the cable industry’s dominance. He guided much of the city’s research into broadband alternatives.

The City of Portland submitted two applications in response to Google’s Request for Information (RFI).

Portland Mayor Charlie Hales said that he will marshal bureaus and bureaucrats to ensure Google gets what it needs. Portland Mayor Charlie Hales said city leaders will begin meetings with Google soon.

You know what Google is good at? Data centers.

Cloud-RAN is the cellular network architecture for the future. Fiber to the small cell can deliver broadband wireless to tiny wireless nodes. Without the bulky infrastructure. With 600 MHz, 2.6 and 5 GHz, smart cities may be mobilized.

Related Fiber Optic articles on Dailywireless include; Google Fiber Launches in Kansas City , Google Blasts Kansas Bill to Limit Fiber Competition, It’s Official: Austin Gets Google Fiber, Kansas City Wins Google Fiber, Gigabit Seattle: Late Paying Bills, RUS Awards $1.2B for Broadband, City Fiber Strategies, US Broadband Sub Count, Hawaii Plans Broadband Initiative, Unlicensed Muni Broadband: Take Two?, Ten Largest Data Centers, The Fiber Utility, 1 Gbps Fiber Comes Home,