WABE

Rural Georgia needs better internet access quickly, but state lawmakers said internet companies won’t expand to rural areas if there’s too much red tape. Lobbyists said their companies are spending too much time negotiating with each city and county for access to roads to install broadband equipment. So state lawmakers and local elected officials will meet for the first time to talk about who has the right of way. Dublin Mayor Phil Best said the residential areas of town are where broadband service spotty.

Google has released little public information about the Atlanta rollout delays. But it’s possible that, in the time it has taken Google Fiber to figure out how to travel the last mile to people’s homes, fiber optic technology may no longer be the best way to get there. Atlanta isn’t the only city to see Google Fiber falter. In Nashville, big telecom operators sued and all but blocked Google Fiber from tapping half of the city’s 88,000 utility poles — essential for completing the backbone of its last-mile delivery.