Google Fiber—On the Silicon Prairie, the Silicon Hills, and now the Silicon Slopes
On the Silicon Prairie, the Silicon Hills, and now the Silicon Slopes — Today the Google Fiber team is in Provo, Utah, where Mayor John Curtis just announced that we intend to make Provo our third Google Fiber City. — Utah is already home to hundreds of tech companies and startups …
Context & Ripple Effects
Google framed Fiber as a community-facing project in 2010, then moved from its original Kansas City-area effort to service plans in Olathe and an Austin expansion announced in April 2013. Provo places a third market into that emerging rollout pattern.
The announcement matters because Google Fiber is no longer only testing demand and construction in one metro area: Provo gives the company another municipal setting in which to apply its gigabit internet-and-TV model.
First-order effects
- Google Fiber adds Provo to its planned city roster, while Provo becomes the next named municipality preparing for the provider's gigabit internet-and-TV service.
Second-order effects
- With Austin and Provo both added in April 2013, Google Fiber must turn its initial community effort into a repeatable multi-city deployment and local-partnership process.
Third-order effects
- If Google continues adding cities, fixed broadband competition shifts toward control of the access layer: municipalities gain more leverage as prospective partners, while network operators face a more visible high-speed benchmark.
The trend: Google Fiber is evolving from a single-community broadband project into a selective multi-city access-network expansion strategy.