Google prepares for a high-speed battle

Google is gearing up for a bloody fight in Washington. For its rivals, AT&T, Comcast and other Internet service providers, the battle is being fought over nothing less than who will control the Internet and the cables that deliver it into millions of homes across America.

The opening salvo in that fight was heard loud and clear last week when Google announced it was prepared to build its own ultra-high-speed Internet network. It was, in the words of one person close to the Google camp, "a hot poker in the eye" of the telecoms and cable companies: a way of pointing out to regulators that Google was prepared to build the networks, even if the old guard was not. If it was a ploy, it worked. The move was praised by Julius Genachowski, Federal Communications Commission chairman, even as the US cable industry poured cold water over what they called Google's "experiment". Next month the FCC will unveil a national broadband strategy that analysts say comes at a useful time for Google, putting telecommunications and cable companies on the defensive about their own slow progress.

For Google, the move was yet another public relations win in a town where it already enjoys a close relationship with the Obama administration and where it has won accolades from Nancy Pelosi, House speaker, and others for its stand against Internet censorship in China.