JULY 14, 2010 By Stephen Hardy -- Google has built a website dedicated to fiber-based broadband. The site, called "Google Fiber for Communities," is an adjunct to its previously announced optical broadband testbed effort -- which means it will provide updates on the project’s progress as well as offer opportunities to lobby for what a Google blog described as “common-sense federal and local policies that would help fiber deployments nationwide.”
The site’s URL is http://www.fiberforcommunities.com/. It currently contains a “thank you” video addressed to the more than 1,100 communities and 200,000 individuals that responded to its RFP looking for partners for the open access network testbed project. There’s also a link to a video of a microtrenching race Google hosted.
Observers have noted the potential value of the testbed as an influence on regulation and policy. The site reinforces this idea by providing a means for visitors to lobby state and federal legislators to make fiber conduit construction part of road maintenance and construction.
The Google blog repeats that the company expects to name its partner or partners by the end of the year. Meanwhile, reports have surfaced that Google has met with one respondent to its RFP, Utah community-based open access fiber network UTOPIA (see "Google meets with UTOPIA FTTH execs").
