Agree. I was going to post this same article. Any city interested apparently has until March 26th to apply.

Well, 1 GBs is state of the art, 10 times what Palo Alto's unbuilt but already-obsolete system promises.

But there's no free lunch. Anyone else remember that Twilight Zone episode where a group aliens couldn't do enough for humanity, even transporting select groups of people to an unspecified super-nirvana? Their principles were written in a book titled "How to Serve Man." Then some wise guy translated the text... .

I am all for Palo Alto applying!

Palo Alto would seem to be a natural choice as Mountain View is already wired by Google. I hope our council makes an application!!! Maybe they could utilize the existing fiber optic ring!

Google is well aware of the difficulties in doing business in Palo Alto and the histories of disasters like cable tv, fiber optic etc.

Google wisely decline the offer to relocate its headquarters to the Agilent site in PA

They will not choose PA for their demonstration project because they want it to work and do not want to wait for 10yrs to go into the Black Hole of the PA process.

On the TV news last night a reporter said that GOOGLE plans to work with Mountain View to set up their Fibre network because they had worked with them so well to set up their wi-fi network.

Sorry Palo Alto, but who'd want to go through the Palo Alto process anyway!!!

Palo Alto should definitely try to work with Google on this. City should build and maintain ducts and make them available to everyone-- even AT&T. Google should use the city ducts to build its own fiber. If the ducts are built to hold a lot of fiber and add fiber cheaply and easily, eventually there will be competition, since fiber isn't that expensive.

Oh boy, negativity about the "Palo Alto Process". Come on, Google is a company that was willing to work with San Francisco on building a city-wide wireless network. The project was only abandoned because Earthlink pulled out (Web Link Any "process" in Palo Alto is orders of magnitude easier than dealing with the bureaucracy and politics of San Francisco. If Google wants to finger the Chinese government, do you think they're afraid of AT&T, Comcast or someone in Palo Alto?

Palo Alto already has a fiber ring in place that's actively used by area businesses. If we put together a proposal, we should use the opportunity to correct the mistakes made during the FTTH trial a few years ago. It has to be more innovative than just wiring up some houses and giving them access to the same phone, cable and internet services that are already available. Think of web-casting high school classes and sports events, monitoring the elderly and keeping watch on your neighborhood.

Today's paper (Friday) reveals that GOOGLE is about to present to the City of Mountain View a proposal to develop all the land around their headquarters with housing, offices and retail. In other words GOOGLE is about to heavily invest in the future of Mountain View.

Therefore, it makes good business sense for them to offer Mountain View a Fibre network to enhance their future investments in the City. Palo Alto is the last place they're going to invest in.

If Google deploys its proposed network in Palo Alto, then Facebook can have a virtual private network where its employees could all have Gigabit fiber connections at home and they can telecommute 24/7.

Mosaic you are right, there is no motivation for GOOGLE to set up a fibre network in Palo Alto where it would only help their competitors. Facebook, HP and all the other start-ups around town would benefit many of which are in direct competition with GOOGLE.

Google, an unregulated monopoly is promising to offer its network at competitive prices. I suppose when they say "competitive" they mean the same thing Comcast does when they quote a price for the continuation of the local Institutional Network (I-Net) connecting local schools. Comcast's I-Net quote is based on supply and demand, where they are currently the only supplier. Just who would be competing with Google to provide 1 Gbps Internet service, and what would be the competitive price if they are the only ones offering that much bandwidth?