By Jacqueline Lee, Palo Alto Daily News, Calif.
The City Council voted unanimously Monday night to being laying the groundwork for citywide ultra-high-speed Internet and expanded wireless service while waiting to see if Google Fiber is coming to Silicon Valley.
The decision followed a recommendation from consulting firm CTC Technology and Energy to explore a public-private partnership and to hold off on making any decisions for a few months.
Councilman Tom DuBois said he didn't want to wait to see what Google would do in such a "fast-moving market." DuBois made the motion to create a "ubiquitous" fiber network, with the city owning the infrastructure. The council plans to revisit the idea in the spring.
City staff will move forward with a request for information, or RFI, for one option that would see the city build and maintain a city-owned network and another that would see a private group operate a city-owned network.
The council also wants the RFI to assess Google's potential impact on the marketplace in Palo Alto.
The city's role in building a fiber network depends on the tech giant's decision to bring Google Fiber to the San Jose area, which includes Palo Alto, Mountain View, Santa Clara and Sunnyvale.
Google is expected to announce a decision this fall. The service has been confirmed for other cities including Atlanta, Nashville and Salt Lake City.
Joanne Hovis, president of CTC Technology and Energy, told the council that AT&T and Comcast will probably compete with Google if the tech giant opts to bring its service to Silicon Valley.
The benefit of competition is that it drives down the cost for consumers, Hovis said. Elsewhere, the presence of Google Fiber has lowered the price by about $40.
Palo Alto does not expect AT&T and Comcast to build a citywide network, but to "cherry pick" areas that are lucrative.
AT&T has plans to bring "GigaPower," the company's gigabit-speed Internet service, to the city.
In the coming months, city staff will meet with Google and AT&T to discuss the possibility of a public-private partnership. They will also discuss how the city can create its own network.
Hovis said the city would find the undertaking expensive without a partner. To achieve a positive cash flow, the city would need 57 percent of the market, a figure Hovis said is "extremely high, almost unattainable."
A full build-out by the city alone would cost $77 million. The city has $20 million in its fiber fund reserve.
On Monday, the council also approved a request for proposals to create and expand city wireless networks.
At the top of the list are the Rinconada pool, Pearson-Arastradero Interpretive Center and the Cubberley Fields.
Expanding wireless service to parks and other similar facilities would cost up to $200,000, while establishing a secure network for city departments would cost $370,000. The latter would also cost $10,000 annually to maintain.
The council opted to make the fiber fund reserve off limits for creating and expanding wireless networks.
©2015 the Palo Alto Daily News (Menlo Park, Calif.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
