The City of Burlington IT staff reported to the City Council at their March 1st, 2010 work session on the Google ultra high speed Fiber to The Home (FTTH) project. After extensive review staff reported to City Council that while it could be very beneficial for a city such as Burlington to be chosen by Google for their pilot program to provide high speed fiber to homes, Google was apparently looking for a high-tech medical, research, and educational community in which they could demonstrate and showcase this high speed infrastructure to the world. Ultra high speed fiber networks operate at speeds approximately 200 times faster than today’s broadband internet connections, reported Rodger Burden, the City’s IT director.
Burden explained that there were many unknowns at this point, including cost, required City staffing, and what Google might expect from the chosen municipality. He further explained that “electric cities” where poles are owned by the municipality have a distinct advantage over non-electric cities like Burlington where the poles are owned by utility companies (such as Duke Energy and AT&T)and where Google would need to negotiate annual rental space for fiber on every pole in the City with these companies. This cost could, he explained, could be significant.
In light of the type of community Google is apparently searching for and the apparent high annual cost to operate a FTTH network in Burlington staff recommended that the City not file an application.