Is Google Really Burlington’s Superhero?
Here is a post of mine from February 13 on Front Porch Forum in response to a suggestion that Google’s recently announced broadband project is the answer to Burlington’s ongoing telecom woes:
Looking ahead I’m hoping that we will continue to recognize the tremendous value in our local fiber infrastructure. As many of you have probably read, the Blue Ribbon Committee thoughtfully identified our local network as “first class” and “valuable to the city in many ways”. Some of these ways include “economic development”, “becoming green” and “future proofing” Burlington. I urge folks to consider the harm to the value of this asset that could be caused by inviting Google to build a nearly identical fiber network parallel to the one we already own.
That said, perhaps we could learn a good deal from Google’s model for service which includes “an ‘open access’ network, giving users the choice of multiple service providers.” Only in our case, it would be the City of Burlington that cultivates revenue generating competition on the fiber network we already own. One more suggestion to add to the list of many offered at the Burlington City Council meeting last Thursday night.
