News -> INDReporter THU, APR 22 10:47AM by Nathan Stubbs

Google rep touts benefits of fiber

Fiber connectivity lays the foundation for development of the next generation of online applications and services, Google Product Manager Minnie Ingersoll said during a presentation yesterday at the Louisiana Immersive Technologies Enterprise. Ingersoll, who heads up Google's Gigabit project — a plan to wire one or two select U.S. cities with a 1 Gigabit fiber network — was one of several speakers participating in the Fiber Fete broadband summit taking place this week in Lafayette.

Ingersoll said the Google Gigabit project was born after several failed attempts to lobby the Federal Communications Commission to lead the way in wiring cities with fiber as part of its national broadband strategy. "Then we said, 'why are we telling the FCC to do this? We're fully capable of stepping up and doing this ourselves."  

Google announced its plans to build out a 1 Gig fiber network for one or two communities, and approximately 50,000 to 500,000 people, in February. It received more than 200,000 responses from individual and communities, including Lafayette, to its online form application. Google plans to announce the selected city or cities before the end of the year.

Lafayette's application centered on its recent success in building a municipally-owned fiber network. The network, which can reach internal speeds up to 100 megabits per second, can easily be upgraded to 1 Gigabit service, according to Lafayette Utilities System Director Terry Huval. Asked whether this gives Lafayette any kind of competitive edge for the Gigabit project, Ingersoll responded: "I can't speak to whether Lafayette is better positioned than any other applicants but certainly the amount of infrastructure in Lafayette and the fact that this community has already taken on a lot of these issues is something we'll be looking at in reviewing their application."

Google has also stated that it intends to build, own and operate the networks, but that they won't be exclusive to any one Internet Service Provider, something that does not fit with Lafayette's current model. The Lafayette fiber network is operated by the publicly-owned Lafayette Utilities System, which must sell service to cover operation expenses and repay the bonds used to build the system.

In her presentation, Ingersoll gave the two main criteria Google is using in its review process. One is evaluating a city's infrastructure and the speed and efficiency with which the fiber network can be built. The other involves assessing community buy-in and how much the city would benefit from the project. "It really has to be a partnership," she said.

Ingersoll noted that Google would be looking to the community to help lead the way in the developing and testing new applications on the 1 Gig network. "It's going to be a lot of us listening to the communities. On the other hand, we have a lot of expertise with applications to where we could say, 'here's some things you could try.'" She emphasized that the idea is that, by openly sharing information about the project, even communities that are not selected can benefit from the lessons learned. "We want to be involved in every community to the extent that we can help catalyze those conversations," she said.


Comments (6)add
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written by Gerald Bertholl , April 22, 2010 - 11:37 am
What about the previous administration/LUS comments that going to fiber would never require upgrades because it was immune from technology changes? Addionally, doesn't anyone else see this like the Silicon Valley representative touting fiber some time ago? Does anyone truly think they or anyone in their industry would not be for it?

It's like taking a playboy poll about infidelity and extrapolating same to the population at large.
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written by CanadaBobEh , April 22, 2010 - 11:56 am
If google would cover the towns in Lafayette Parish that are not LUS then Lafayette Parish can be a Fiber Parish! Youngsville, Broussard, Scott, Carencro come to mind.
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written by Wow... , April 22, 2010 - 02:12 pm
The question is whether we have the local trained workforce and business community capable of developing, testing, deploying and marketing these apps. That is as big or bigger an issue than having deployed some fiber.

The state has a critical IT workforce shortage in all segments. Has had this problem for years.

The focus on trying to lure external companies with tax incentives rather than training domestic workforce over the last 5 years seems to be a fairly significant impediment for any but the most heavily subsidized ventures.
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written by Terry Huval , April 22, 2010 - 02:20 pm
Mr. Bertholl's post concerning LUS's comments is not correct.

LUS said that fiber would not need to be upgraded, but that the electronics on each end of the fiber will need to be upgraded as the demand for bandwidth increases. LUS's business case included upgrading those electronics as needed.

Currently, LUS is offering 100 Mbps to each premise. That is likely the fastest and lowest cost Internet combination in the country. If Google wants to partner with Lafayette now, it could pay for the cost to increase the bandwidth to 1 Gbps.


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written by ragin_cajun , April 22, 2010 - 05:43 pm
If LUS went with Ethernet (which I'm sure they did), going from 100 Mbps to 1 Gig is as easy as changing out SFP's/Transceivers on each end of the fiber--several hundred dollars on each end. It's pretty easy on Cisco/Foundry/Juniper gear. Might require changing out the core switches/routers, probably wouldn't.

All network gear needs to be upgraded eventually as manufacturers quit supporting older gear--product lifecycle. Eventually, the hardware would be too old for a support contract. Support contract is an annual fee you pay for software upgrades and overnight replacement in case hardware fails. It's alot like car manufacturers discontinuing models of cars, and then no longer making spare parts for them--just the lifecycle for networking gear is alot shorter.

Fiber never goes away, lasts for decades if not forever, and is a physical transport for many different network protocols--ATM, Ethernet, FDDI, SONET, all run on identical fiber optic cable. So, for example, upgrading an older ATM network to a newer Ethernet network does not require changing fiber.

Also, let's keep in mind that UL has, or had at one time, one of the best computer science programs in the country. I think the workforce here is adequate for application development. It's just not that hard. It requires creativity more than technical training or experience.

On the other hand, Lafayette also has plenty of local network engineering talent, but no local company built the FTTH network.


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written by Just wondering , April 24, 2010 - 12:15 pm
Terry: would there be anything legally stopping LUS from leasing/selling the entire system to Google? Assuming the bonds holders would either be made whole or agreed.

No matter where they go, I can't image them being able to do it better or cheaper than LUS has already done. Plus the obvious, its already done.
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