Seattle's fiber-network deal with Gigabit Squared is dead

Seattle Mayor Ed Murray has declared the city’s deal with startup broadband company Gigabit Squared dead. In fact, the city’s deal with the company may have been doomed before Murray was even elected.

Gigabit Squared’s unpaid bills totaling $52,250 for work the city's employees have already done on the project, have been sent to the city’s lawyers, who will decide whether to send them to collections, according to the city's IT director Erin Devoto. He said Gigabit has not built anything yet and the only work that's been done has been by city employees who put together research and reports for Gigabit. Gigabit paid $2,500 of the $54,750 bill for city employees' work last year, but has not paid the rest, Devoto said. Mayor Murray has stated he’s seeking other companies with a “more realistic financing mechanism” to lease the fiber and move forward with the program.