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Comment by zapdrive | Hacker News Reader

I am sure many more companies would have been interested in this deal. When it comes to selling the infrastructure built with tax-payer money, the government should be more transparent in its dealings. The city of Provo should have advertised the sale or lease of its fiber infrastructure and let companies bid on it. And the fiber should have gone to the highest bidder. Or at least, accept offers from multiple companies and let the residents decide (through voting) which company they want to give the infrastructure to.

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Provo has been trying to unload their fiber network for a long time. I don't see this as a backroom deal that only benefits Google, but rather somebody finally putting the "under contract" sign above the "for sale" sign.

That nobody else came calling (or offered deals as good as Google's) is not Google nor Provo's fault.

From a taxpayer perspective, they get to stop paying for the upkeep on what is currently an unprofitable system. And those who keep paying for it get a significant upgrade.

Don't forget that this is a big marketing opportunity for Provo as well. As someone that is house hunting in Utah county the announcement of Google Fiber is the only thing making me consider Provo itself as a viable option.

Are telephone lines and cable lines leased from the public as well? Or the right to? I'm a bit ignorant here, but I would think that in those situations there is no free bidding on infrastructure deals.

Typically not. Usually companies lease the right of way (power lines, conduits between manholes, etc) on extremely long terms and pay to install the fiber / copper themselves. Cities that "own" the fiber directly are what would be considered "municipally owned."

Cities may also provide "franchises" so that only one telco or cable operator gets the right to lay cable pathways, and all other companies are denied the rights. This is usually coupled with the company picking up the cost for actually building and maintaining the rights-of-way (ie, actually building the manholes/conduits, or whatever). There's thousands of cities, and many hundreds (if not thousands) of companies in the game, so its expected that there are many different variations between each municipal area.

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