City Mayors check the box for next stage of Google Fiber

Check the box, we are getting closer to having Google Fiber in the Valley. In February of this year Google announced that it has chosen Phoenix, Scottsdale and Tempe as potential cities out of the nine metro areas around the country to deliver their ultra high-speed Fiber network to local residents, businesses and educational centers.
Soon after the original announcement a letter was emailed to Phoenix residents with a subject heading “Getting your community ready for Google Fiber.” The email talked about the work that is ahead with city leaders over the coming months, and asked residents to share the news about Fiber via social media.
I think I join the geek masses and confidently say that I too am salivating like a Pavlov dog for Fiber to come to the Valley. Google Fiber would smoke the current WIFI situation as it would deliver Internet speeds up to 100 times faster than the average broadband network and one would be able to download 100 photos, an HD movie or a game in a stupid fast amount of time.
Google informed AZTB that our cities have completed their fiber-ready checklist that includes information about existing infrastructure, streamlining construction, approval process for permits, and ensuring access to the structures and more.

According to the Google Fiber blog written by Jill Szuchmacher, Google Fiber expansion team, “[Google has] been impressed by the enthusiasm and engagement of every one of these [34] cities, and all of them have, for the most part, completed their checklists.
“We say “for the most part” because there’s still a lot of work to do over the next few months. We’ll start by working with cities to tie up some checklist-related loose ends.”
The Mayors, Stanton, Lane and Mitchell sent a joint statement about their progress. “Over the past few months, Phoenix, Scottsdale and Tempe have been working closely with the Google Fiber team on the possibility of bringing the company’s service to our region. We are pleased that we’ve taken an important step in the process by completing a ‘checklist’ of items to prepare our region for the service, and it’s a testament to our city staff members that we are moving forward smoothly. There are still many steps to go, and we look forward to continuing to work with Google Fiber.”
More on the cities’ “To Do” list comes in the form of agreements, streamlining the process and a detailed city study. “We’ll need to work with either the city or the state to get something called a video franchise agreement, which would basically grant us permission to build a local network,” Szuchmacher said, “We may also need pole-attachment agreements with local utilities or other companies who can rent us space on their poles. (Stringing fiber along existing poles is the fastest and least disruptive way to deploy it.)”
As of today, Fiber is only available in Kansas City and Provo, Utah and later this year it will be available in Austin, TX and other cities.
Google Fiber team indicated that their crews are expected to be starting their work around these cities in the near future.
Read our coverage about Google Fiber, the cities considered and the checklist here.