Huntsville’s Model for Google Fiber Is the Future of Broadband

The city of Huntsville (AL) wanted a company to provide it gigabit fiber Internet so badly, it went and built most of the physical infrastructure for the high-speed network itself. Feb 22, that effort was rewarded when Google announced that Huntsville would become the next Google Fiber city. In nearly every city offering Google Fiber thus far (with the exception of Provo (UT)), Google has built the fiber network from scratch and has been the sole provider. But in Huntsville, a city of 180,000 with a high concentration of tech companies, Google will be just another customer utilizing the fiber infrastructure for high-speed internet that the city announced in 2014.

Most cities with existing fiber infrastructure have agreements with major telecommunication businesses that prohibit the city from using it to wire homes, giving existing telecom companies the chance to create local monopolies. Cities usually agree to this because telecom companies will agree to provide free or cheap connections to municipal offices in exchange for exclusivity. Huntsville’s agreement is a signal that this model might be beginning to change. “This is the first time Google has done it, and it’s a pretty big precedent for this approach,” said Christopher Mitchell, director of the Community Broadband Networks initiative at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. “It’s certainly the largest city we’ve seen something like this.”