By Anna Butler, Dallas Business Journal
Google Fiber will begin exploring what it would take to bring its super-fast Internet system to residents and small businesses in Dallas.
“This is a first-step in discussions, but a big step for us,” Jill Szuchmacher, Google Fiber’s director of expansion, told me in an interview.
To get started, Mountain View, California-based Google plans to meet with Mayor Mike Rawlings and other city officials to discuss what it looks like to roll out Fiber smoothly in Dallas. This ease is measured by how non-disruptive it would be to add fiber-optic network lines and how painlessly the City can enact necessary changes.
Using its Fiber checklist, Google will weigh in-place logistics and infrastructure – like whether the thousands of miles of wiring required can partially utilize existing utility poles, rather than digging up streets – and will help prepare officials for the onslaught of permit submissions (about 100 times more than what most cities are used to according to Szuchmacher).
Outside of Los Angeles and Chicago, Dallas is one of the biggest metro areas that Google Fiber has attempted to enter. Szuchmacher said that Dallas was a natural choice for both its accelerated job growth and maturing tech sector.
“We want to see how we can help catalyze this activity,” she said.
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