On the same day that Google announced it is launching Google Fiber in the Texas capital, AT&T said it would be more than happy to do the same—that is, assuming that the telco giant is “granted the same terms and conditions as Google on issues such as geographic scope of offerings, rights of way, permitting, state licenses and any investment incentives.”

"Most encouraging is the recognition by government officials that policies which eliminate unnecessary regulation, lower costs and speed infrastructure deployment, can be a meaningful catalyst to additional investment in advanced networks which drives employment and economic growth," said Randall Stephenson, AT&T chairman and CEO, in a statement.

On a conference call with reporters on Tuesday afternoon roughly an hour after AT&T's press release, both Google and the City of Austin were quick to point out that Google had not received any “economic incentives” from the city.

“We haven't offered any economic incentives,” Lee Leffingwell, the city’s mayor, told reporters on the call. “It's strictly an agreement to expedite the process. That would be applicable to others. We have to look at [AT&T’s] operation and look at their application.”

The general manager for Google Access (of which Fiber is a part), Kevin Lo, echoed this sentiment.

“Like in [Kansas City], there are no special incentives,” he said on the call. “We believe it’s great when there's more user choice. We welcome AT&T's announcement. I think it's great that people want a [gigabit connection].”

However, while there may not have been economic incentives in the purest and most narrow definition of the term, if Kansas City, MO is any indicator, the city certainly pulled out all the stops for Google.

As we reported last year, the agreement (PDF) between Google and the City of Fountains specifies that the city will "make space available to Google in City facilities for the installation of Google’s Central Office equipment and for additional network facilities," will "provide power necessary for Google’s equipment at City locations," and "will not charge Google for such space, power, or related services."

For now, neither Google nor the City of Austin has published a copy of the official agreement between the two entities, although a Google spokesperson told Ars that it would be posted on the city’s website.

“Both Google and the Austin government worked hard to make sure that our agreement is fair, non-exclusive and transparent,” the spokesperson said. “The agreements address the same basic items, but since Austin and Kansas City are different cities, with different infrastructure and processes, the details differ.”