Institute for Local Self-Reliance

[Community] Google Fiber has finally announced its plans for the future after weeks of dramatic speculation that it will lay off half its workforce and give up on fiber-optics entirely. Google has now confirmed our expectations: they are pausing new Google Fiber cities, continuing to expand within those where they have a presence, and focusing on approaches that will offer a better return on investment in the short term.

This is not a surprise: Google is fundamentally a private firm focused on its shareholder value. And as such, it does not have the right incentives to deploy what has become essential infrastructure.

Fiber Remains A Good Municipal Investment: If anything, Google Fiber's change in focus reinforces the importance of smart municipal investments.

Waiting Can Only Hurt You: Whether a community intends to offer services directly or simply to encourage more independent service providers, it is now clear that they need to take action. The "Google Lottery" is temporarily suspended. Get busy finding an approach that fits your needs and challenges.

Wireless Is Not Killing Fiber: 5G is not magic and won't meet all of our needs.
The Private Sector Needs You: The private sector, Google included, simply cannot solve this problem alone but cities can change the calculus.

Smart cities are realizing they need to act or risk being left behind. However, many do not want to embrace the purely-municipal broadband network model, where the city would engage in direct competition with existing providers. One way for those communities to move forward is with a public-private partnership (PPP). But for all the excitement around this model, there are few concrete examples from which to draw lessons. This paper explores lessons from PPPs and offers in-depth case studies of three high profile models: Westminster and Ting in Maryland, UC2B and iTV-3/CountryWide in Illinois, and LeverettNet in Massachusetts.

Local governments in Minnesota have been at the forefront of expanding fast, affordable, and reliable Internet access - often in some of the most challenging areas of the state.

Institute for Local Self-Reliance has just released a policy brief to explore some of these approaches: . The brief examines five communities that have taken different approaches to expanding access, from working with a trusted local partner to creating a new cooperative to building community-wide fiber-to-home networks.