Underground Construction - December 2018 - 4

EDITOR'S LOG
Robert Carpenter | Editor-in-Chief

Return to Google Land?

Remember back in 2010 when
Google announced its entry into
the broadband network market? To
much fanfare, Google Fiber was born
with Kansas City serving as its first
major construction project. Google's
promise to deliver true high-speed
internet services (as much as a gigabyte) captured the interest of cities
across the nation. And these days,
having gigabyte broadband available
to both homes and businesses is the
definition of a modern American city
with high economic capabilities and
possibilities.
Right off the bat, favorable
attention rained down upon the
mega-company. Google Fiber was
widely praised by consumers and
businesses desperate for dramatic enhancements to their broadband needs. Google Fiber was also
widely panned by competitors for its
methods and ability to coerce amazing concessions and assistance from
cities hoping to land a Google Fiber
network.
The entry of Google Fiber as an
economically priced, broadband
provider became an immediate disruptive force across the country - especially when it was delivering speeds
up to 150 times faster than existing
systems.
Google had money to invest, was
a recognized technology leader, and
created its own rules. The company
could afford to be strategic regarding
where it installed its fiber optic systems. Smaller cities need not apply.
At one point, it announced 34 cities
where it might build next, and the
mystique and hysteria of Google Fiber reached new heights.
For a while, things were moving at
a fast pace. Suddenly, in 2016, new
Google Fiber buildouts were gone.
The company announced that its
then-CEO Craig Barratt was stepping
down and plans for new Fiber cities
would be put on-hold.
Many industry experts chalked
up the Google fade to the mere fact
that the company had done what it

DECEMBER 2018 | UConOnline.com

Cities of small to
moderate size want
to become relevant
to modern business
opportunities now,
not later. They want
the convenience
and beneﬁts for their
residents that come
with high-speed internet
immediately.
intended. The market had been motivated and stimulated by the competition and another wave of broadband
build-outs were hitting the markets,
which is what Google needed for its
high-tech products.
Apparently, Google Fiber was not
finished with its construction. In
2017, Google Fiber came back to life
in Louisville, Ky. This time, a competitor, AT&T, quickly escalated its work
in Louisville to reach the market first.
Google's construction in Louisville
also was substantially underground,
making deployments using a technique called shallow trenching - better known to telecom construction
markets as micro trenching.
Regardless of what the technique is
called, it allows fiber to be laid quickly
and expeditiously in an extremely
narrow trench, just wide and deep
enough to deploy fiber along the side
of a street. It is sealed with a specialty
grout and the road is immediately restored to full operation. Google Fiber,
if it continues to initiate build-outs,
can bring its broadband services to
other cities at a much faster pace.
Another possible key to Google
Fiber's continued strategy was the
acquisition of a company called Webpass in October 2016. It primarily
provides gigabit speeds wirelessly to

multi-tenant buildings. Webpass has
already been deployed in eight cities,
with others pending.
A wrinkle in the rush to obtain
true high-speed internet is that rural
and underserved regions are tired of
watching the future pass them by.
As such, almost 500 cities have built
their own high-speed networks to
date. Those cities are not content to
let majors such as Google, AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, etc. decide when they
reach market viability - that may not
ever happen without a federal push
or incentive program.
Cities of small to moderate size
want to become relevant to modern
business opportunities now, not later. They want the convenience and
benefits for their residents that come
with high-speed internet immediately. Sometimes, the only way to make
that happen is to take things into
their own hands. For some cities, that
has worked flawlessly, while other cities have struggled to maintain such a
system. But the left-behind cities will
keep trying.
Even contractors are re-engaging,
as marked by Quanta's return to the
telecom construction market. After
selling its telecom assets to Dycom
a few years ago and seemingly abandoning that market to concentrate on
more potentially lucrative endeavors,
Quanta has now built up an impressive telecom operation of more than
450 people and is still growing.
Will Google Fiber begin to fuel
another building wave to the already
strong fiber broadband construction
market? It's beginning to look that
way. But whether broadband solutions come from a Google Fiber product or renewed vigor from AT&T,
Verizon, Comcast or scores of other
providers, the public is demanding
alternatives to the traditional, limited
broadband offerings.

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Underground Construction - December 2018

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