by Ross Myers
On Making a Regional Pitch for Google
March 14, 2010 in Google Fiber by Ross Myers
In comments of this post: Can Fed Ex Help us Deliver Google? Roch responded with five reasons why he thought regional was not the way to go on the Google Initiative. I have pulled his reasons and my responses to the front page for further possible discussion.
1. An area twenty times larger than just Greensboro in which the physical infrastructure must be installed.
Is that assuming Google’s plan will be to come to town and pre-wire every home? Where do you see WiMAX fitting in?
2. A dilution of the number of customers per mile by the inclusion of rural areas
It is much more likely that the first broadband connections that our Rural areas see, will be wireless.
3. A dilution of Greensboro’s relatively favorable demographics, such as the number of people with college educations, the number of people in technical professions, etc.
Are you suggesting that those are the only demo’s that Google will be looking at? They will need more then those to make it work.
4. Going from dealing with two regulatory entities, Greensboro and the state, to dealing with more than twenty if the scope is the “triad.”
Whether Google chooses several locations in a cluster or locations spread across the Country they would be facing the same issues. It can also be looked at as economies of scale…the difference for us in potential cost savings could be like….communities individually acquiring their HSI from a convenience store compared to coming together and acquiring it from Sam’s Warehouse….for Google lower cost for larger roll-out.
5. And the most obvious: exceeding Google’s stated upper number of customers of 500,000.
We would not be exceeding Google’s 500,000 if we all independently worked together to leverage individually submitted RFI’s.
I believe Google is looking for a solid business plan on how HSI can benefit them as much as the ones pursuing it. A regional strategy could only strengthen our chances.
What do you think?
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“Where do you see WiMAX fitting in?”
We can imagine that as a possibility, but it’s not what Google proposes. Google specifically describes their effort as building fiber to the premises; telling Google we would like them to consider something else seems like folly.
“It is much more likely that the first broadband connections that our Rural areas see, will be wireless.
True — but not what Google is trying to do with this particular project.
“Whether Google chooses several locations in a cluster or locations spread across the Country they would be facing the same issues.”
You fail to address the point of how much more difficult those issues will be to navigate if dealing with a couple dozen regulatory entities instead of two.
“Are you suggesting that those are the only demo’s that Google will be looking at?”
No. But when Google says they will be looking to see the development and deployment of new applications, a community of interested developers will be important.
“We would not be exceeding Google’s 500,000 if we all independently worked together to leverage individually submitted RFI’s.”
You are trying to have it both ways. Which is it? Do you want the Triad to pursue a “regional bid,” as you first suggested, with a population more than double Google’s upper limit on customers, or are you coming around to agreeing that this should be a Greensboro initiative?
“Where do you see WiMAX fitting in?”
We can imagine that as a possibility, but it’s not what Google proposes. Google specifically describes their effort as building fiber to the premises; telling Google we would like them to consider something else seems like folly.
I believe my questions around WiMAX have a lot of relevance to the possibilities. To quote from their Policy blog in response to public comments on the FCC’s National broadband plan:
The FCC Plan calls for 100 Mbps by 2020. I’m assuming here, but I have a feeling that Google will get there first.
Google specifically mentions fiber to the “home” premises. Would it then be folly to assume that they plan on leaving the fiber to the business premises on the table? I think trying to read to little into Google’s offer could be as detrimental to our chances as reading to much. After all they did ask us to think big.
“It is much more likely that the first broadband connections that our Rural areas see, will be wireless.
True — but not what Google is trying to do with this particular project.
We all are trying to speculate what Google is trying to do…but with wirleess VOIP being the next big play and Google having invested in WiMAX do you think they would leave that on the table also?
“Whether Google chooses several locations in a cluster or locations spread across the Country they would be facing the same issues.”
You fail to address the point of how much more difficult those issues will be to navigate if dealing with a couple dozen regulatory entities instead of two.
I guess it all depends on how one chooses to define “regional”. How many of those couple dozen regulatory entities have populations over 50,000? At this point with W-S considering a bid Google would only have to deal with three.
“Are you suggesting that those are the only demo’s that Google will be looking at?”
No. But when Google says they will be looking to see the development and deployment of new applications, a community of interested developers will be important.
I agree that a community of developers will be an important consideration to Google…I personally see an explosion of “basement” and “garage” businesses growing in the place they choose. That being said I think it is more important for Google’s business models at this time to deploy existing applications sitting on the shelf due to lack of HSI infrastructure support.
“We would not be exceeding Google’s 500,000 if we all independently worked together to leverage individually submitted RFI’s.”
You are trying to have it both ways. Which is it? Do you want the Triad to pursue a “regional bid,” as you first suggested, with a population more than double Google’s upper limit on customers, or are you coming around to agreeing that this should be a Greensboro initiative?
I still remain convinced that a regional approach would give us a competitive advantage…..long term I do not think that Google plans to put an “upper limit on customers” that they serve.
If what you are suggesting is that Google be made aware that, if they choose Greensboro, they will be putting down roots in a city that is part of a larger metropolitan area of which they may eventually avail themselves with additional nearby markets and possibly other services, sure, those things they should know. To formally submit an application on behalf of the region, however, would be a mistake and a disservice to Greensboro.
To answer to the above 5 points:
1) I believe that a regional effort would, a)put us over the 50-500k number Google announced, and b) be a good idea in the future. In the future, because we have worked hard as a community to show Greensboro to Google and W-S(with 11 days to go) is just gonna piggyback on our effort? I would beg to say, that in the future if we were to be chosen, the fiber network would build out slowly and it would become a regional effort. If the rest of the region was so interested, where have they been since Feb 10th?
2)Rural Areas are typically under served or not served at all, but I do see a FTTH network hooking up folks, who can’t even get DSL right now. The problem I see with WiMax in rural areas, and we have those problems in the City limits with Clearwire, is tree canopy blocking signal. WiMax is great for densely populated areas, but sparse populations with topographical barriers probably isn’t a reality.
3)I think Greensboro’s demographics are diverse and that we have the kind of innovative community here Google is looking for. I do think that having their Fiber network here will further diversify our demographic and create new possibilities for our city.
4)I think because this is “an experiment”, Google is not looking to cover large, sparse areas. Maybe down the road, if the experiment works, that will change. I would think that they will choose between 1 and 4 cities of our size or smaller. The only way cost savings takes place is if Fiber becomes the norm, like when DVD players first came out as compared to now, based on supply and demand.
5) It would put us over the 500,000 threshold Google has provided. As good an effort as Baltimore is putting forth right now, their population in the city limits is 636,919 according to the 2008 Census…over the limit.
I think regionalism is a good thing in the long run, but in the short term of this application, we must focus on us. We can share the wealth later.