Google fights AT&T, Comcast over Bay Area Google Fiber service

Google's plan to bring ultrahigh-speed Internet service to the Bay Area has run into a decidedly nontech hurdle: utility poles. To roll out Google Fiber in five Silicon Valley cities, the tech giant needs access to the poles for stringing up fiber cable. But in several cities a who's who of Google competitors are standing in the way. The outcome of the pole fight is likely to have a profound effect on which communities get Google Fiber and which don't. "The infrastructure needs to be mostly above ground," said MoffettNathanson Research analyst Craig Moffett. "You can't proceed ... if you don't have pole access."

Similar battles have played out in other cities across the nation, slowing Google's multibillion-dollar program while competitors push forward with their own gigabit-speed offerings. Gigabit speed is 1,000 megabits per second -- more than 30 times faster than the average residential download speed in California, according to the Federal Communications Commission. Mountain View (CA)-based Google has been fighting before the California Public Utilities Commission for the right to use publicly and privately owned utility poles because burying fiber cables is expensive and in places impossible. AT&T and the cable TV association representing Comcast and Time Warner Cable have told state regulators that Google has no such right. And Google contends that a group that controls many Bay Area utility poles, and includes Google competitors as members, also has been blocking access to the poles.