Google Fiber made it all sound so simple.

The company arrived in Portland in early 2014 and said it might bring its hyperfast Internet service to town. All it needed, Google Fiber said, was a little time to evaluate the market.

In the 14 months since, Portland and the state have been wrestling with the minutia of city regulations and an unexpected Oregon Supreme Court decision that might have derailed the whole thing.

On Thursday, Gov. Kate Brown signed a bill that undoes that October court ruling. House Bill 2485 exempts "gigabit" Internet service like Google's from a thorny property tax that dates to the 1970s and was originally intended for microwave towers.

"We're thinking about the network we're going to need in 10 years. So it's OK that we go through some work to get it," said Mary Beth Henry, director of Portland's Office of Community Technology.

Google Fiber offers Internet connections of roughly 1 gigabit per second, 25 times the current broadband standard. Since the company announced it might serve Portland, CenturyLink, Frontier Communications and Comcast have all begun big upgrades to their own Internet speeds.

All now have plans for gigabit service.

Google pushed hard for Oregon's new law. It exempts hyperfast Internet service providers from an unusual Oregon tax methodology that values companies based - in part - on "intangible" assets such as the value of their brands.

For huge companies like Google, that might have added tens of millions of dollars to their annual property tax bill.

Oregon lawmakers sought to create an exemption for Google Fiber last month, in a bill that exempts data centers from the tax methodology and caps Comcast's liability. But Google complained the wording in the bill actually made it ineligible for the tax break.

So lawmakers used a separate bill to fix the language. The state Senate approved it 30-0 last week, followed soon after by a 60-0 endorsement by the House.

Portland has already approved a Google Fiber franchise that exempts the company from some of the fees and service requirements Comcast faces. It's also approved a framework to lease public property to Google Fiber for about 15 "fiber huts" to help run the network.

Additionally, the city has reworked transportation regulations to allow Google Fiber to put 200 utility cabinets along big city streets. (The new rules, just approved by the Bureau of Transportation, limit the cabinets to one per block, generally only on high-traffic boulevards, with a 30-day notice to neighborhood associations -- and without a requirement for an "art wrap" transportation planners had contemplated.)

So, is all that enough for Google?

"I'm not aware there are issues," said Henry, who is coordinating six cities' efforts to lure Google Fiber.

The company is also considering service in Gresham, Lake Oswego, Tigard, Beaverton and Hillsboro.

Google Fiber doesn't have franchise agreements with any of those cities yet, and Henry said it hasn't shown any urgency in getting them. So she said it's not clear whether such pacts are a prerequisite for Google Fiber moving forward in Oregon.

In February 2014, when Google Fiber announced its expansion plans, the company said it was considering Portland and seven other metro areas. It's since committed to moving forward on five of them. Henry said she sees no reason why Portland shouldn't be next.

"I'm very optimistic," Henry said. "I can't help but be."

-- Mike Rogoway

mrogoway@oregonian.com

503-294-7699

@rogoway