At the U.S. version of Fiber Connect (past FTTH conference), Google Fiber's Director of Corporate Development presented their vision for an open access network to the audience.
The recent Google Fiber Open Access Network project in West Des Moines, Iowa was presented as well as two previous examples in Huntsville, Alabama working with local utility services. They are also in talks with two local companies in Vermont for a broadband partnership covering approximately 100,000 customers. Google Fiber will then provide symmetrical gigabit bandwidth services to local customers. In Vermont, the community will form a body called the Communications United Regional CUD to seek partners for broadband service delivery.
According to Google Fiber, the access network will be owned and built by local Vermont companies, with Google Fiber leasing the network capacity to provide the service, while other ISPs are welcome to lease the network and compete with Google Fiber.
The director said that although the current U.S. government has provided a lot of funding for broadband development, but still can not achieve the goal of providing better broadband services to every user. He believes the open broadband access network is a development model that can achieve universal service." When we first started talking to each other about the idea, they told us that the funding they received would enable coverage for 15,000 to 20,000 homes, but their community has 45,000 homes. And Google Fiber can pay for that gap, with rent, so they can bring service to more users for a small amount of money." They already offer broadband access in 13 markets across the U.S., two of which are on the open access model. In the future, they will also be more aggressive in promoting this open partnership approach to building access networks.
