fiber-14_Ben_Felten_cc.jpg

Google wants access to public rights of way for fiber and network cabinets -- and wants to lease additional public property for "network huts."

( (Ben Felten/Creative Commons))

Google Fiber promises lightning-fast Internet service, quicker downloads and an array of new digital conveniences enabled by fiber-optic connections that run right into your home.

The company set politicians and netizens abuzz in February when it suggested it might bring that fiber to the Portland area, perhaps as soon as 2015. But building a faster network could invite years of disruption as Google installs networking equipment around the city and buries fiber along suburban streets.

The service could also necessitate new rules about what’s allowed in the public right of way – and open the door to other companies installing their own gear on public property.

“There’s issues,” said Portland city commissioner Steve Novick, who runs the transportation bureau, which oversees rights of way. “But we’re very hopeful we can work out the issues.”

Google announced in February that it wants to offer fiber service in Portland, Beaverton, Hillsboro, Gresham, Lake Oswego and Tigard – and in eight other metro areas across the country. Public officials from each of those cities are scrambling to meet Google Fiber’s May 1 deadline for information about local geography and regulations.

Google promises “gigabit” Internet service – downloads of 1,000 megabits per second, roughly 100 times faster than a typical U.S. download speed. It already offers service in Kansas City and in Provo, Utah, and is building a network in Austin.

Google hopes fiber will usher in a new era of Internet service, which the company could capitalize on with its ad-supported businesses. It also offers a companion cable TV service.

Portland officials, who have been pursuing a faster, more flexible alternative to Comcast and CenturyLink for over a decade, have embraced Google's overtures. But they're scratching their heads as they try to match the company's stated requirements with city rules and resources.

Google, for example, wants to put small networking cabinets in the public right of way around the city. They’re small – two feet on each side and four feet high – but it’s not the sort of thing Portland currently allows.

And Google wants to install bigger boxes, what it calls "network huts," on public property to house its equipment and fiber. Each is 12 feet by 28 feet, meaning they're too big for the right of way along public streets.

Google estimates it will need one hut for every 20,000 homes served – Portland estimates that will mean 15 across the city, and one to five huts in each of the suburbs. Portland is currently reviewing zoning for properties across the city, looking for sites that could accommodate huts.

Utilities, or their customers, typically pay for access to the public rights of way. Portland is currently negotiating a franchise agreement with Google and officials have indicated they plan to levy a franchise fee -- but haven't said how much.

Neither the network cabinets nor the fiber huts present “insurmountable” issues, said Mary Beth Henry, who is leading Portland’s pursuit of Google Fiber as manager of the city’s Office of Community Technology.

“But nobody said it would be a cakewalk,” she said.

As city officials consider reworking the rules for Google, they’re also considering the implications if Google’s rivals seek the same treatment – and put their own networking equipment in public spaces.

“Our approach has been, thus far, that if we make some kind of policy change at the city it would be available to others as well,” Henry said.

The suburbs face an additional complication. While 80 percent of Portland’s phone, power and cable lines are on utility poles, Beaverton and other cities run primarily underground.

That means Google will have to dig trenches for its fiber, crossing parking strips and streets, messing up front yards, annoying neighbors and – for brief periods – snarling traffic.

Google will need permits for each dig, according to Beaverton public works director Peter Arellano. Those permits ensure that city inspectors can review their work and scout each site in advance, painting the ground to mark the location of existing water, gas and power lines.

Washington County has already been through this once. Verizon began digging up streets a decade ago for its FiOS fiber-optic network, which it later sold to Frontier Communications.

“In Verizon’s case they staffed additional city positions so we could meet that need,” Arellano said, funding inspectors and locaters to enable a speedy rollout. “They wrote the city a check,” he said, adding that Beaverton will pursue a similar arrangement from Google.

Beaverton has nearly finished compiling information for Google’s May 1 deadline, according to Arellano, and Henry said Portland is well along with its process, too.

San Antonio, another city where Google is contemplating fiber expansion, has already approved a boilerplate lease agreement for Google's network huts. Henry said she expects the Portland City Council will take up the issue on April 23, though that vote wouldn't authorize the huts at any particular site.

And, Henry said, Portland is on schedule in preparing other data that Google has requested and will have it uploaded to the company’s servers well before the company’s May 1 cutoff – just in case, she said wryly, bandwidth issues delay the transmission.

“We’re on target,” she said, “and we will make the deadline.”

-- Mike Rogoway; twitter: @rogoway; 503-294-7699