Google Fiber Closes Deal to Acquire iProvo Network -

Google Fiber Closes Deal to Acquire iProvo Network Back in April Google announced they'd be expanding their $70 for symmetrical 1 Gbps Google Fiber service into Utah. Unlike other Google Fiber launch locations however, they've gotten a leg up on construction by buying the existing iProvo municipal fiber network. Even better for Google, they were able to acquire the network (sold in 2008 to Broadweave for $40 Million) for a cool $1. Three months later and Provo mayor John Curtis has posted a blog entry saying the deal with Google has officially closed, and that locals will soon start hearing about deployment specifics. About 9,000 of 35,000 Provo homes are currently connected to the Provo network, and Google's deal requires they finish the estimated $18-$30 million build out within five years.

1 edit Nifty GFiber community access project in KC Slightly off topic: In KC there is a nifty civic project in the works with KC Public Library that uses every aspect of Google Fiber - Gbit for libraries is free, Gbit for many schools free and Google's 5Mb 'free' access can use this service. The service allows 'checking out' major desktop productivity applications from the library, like Adobe Photoshop, MS Office, etc from your home or school. They are basically setting up remote desktop service with an 'application checkout system' similar to how Overdrive works with checking out best seller ebooks for Kindle readers (KC library does this too). Could potentially work with tablets too and Linux/Mac users could use Windows desktop apps. They apparently just have to get concurrent licenses with publishers setup for Citrix type deployments. It shouldn't require high speed connection from end users, they might only need a 3-5Mbps connection for a good experience, maybe less and the latency will be low since it's local - so the 'free' Google 5Mbps service would work (or anyone else with KC library card and 3-5Mbps connection). It's the library that needs high speed connection to handle potentially dozens to hundreds of users at once. Although schools would need high speed access if many students access at once, so this perfectly plays into Google's community access plan. Basically anyone with a KCMO library card and fairly low end connection and fairly low end computer would be able to use high end desktop productivity apps for free. The KC project won recognition from Mozilla Ignite competition. ?gcn.com/articles/2013/07/19/kans???ary.aspx Re: Nifty GFiber community access project in KC Very interesting. Very innovative. Although I think they are giving far too much credit to Google. I have yet to see a public library outside of universities that even has Photoshop or other paid Adobe products available for use in the building. The cost is too prohibitive. Credit should be given to the city, as this project is going to be very pricey by the time servers and licensing are paid. Re: Nifty GFiber community access project in KC No one is specifically giving Google credit for the solution, but it is a project that _utilizes_ Google's community access plan on all layers - it takes advantage of free Google Gbit for schools/libraries and 5Mb for end users. Re: Nifty GFiber community access project in KC That it does. Re: Nifty GFiber community access project in KC One way to cut costs down is to shift license costs of software purchases in schools and shift the dollars to the public library. This would allow more efficient use of software budget across dozens of schools and centralize to more efficient concurrent usage for all schools (and BTW, anyone with KCMO library card). I don't specifically know how KCMO library/school budget works but it seems they should try to work that out, much more efficient way to manage licenses across many sites into one. The school also only needs cheap dumbed down computers, maybe even Chromebooks. Reviews: ?Comcast Re: Nifty GFiber community access project in KC said by xenophon: The school also only needs cheap dumbed down computers, maybe even Chromebooks. Have to be a little careful of that, even a fairly hefty ( as affordable through school funding or lack of it) fiber connection with firewalls and (sadly REQUIRED, net nanny software) can bog down pretty quickly with 12 to 30k clients for smaller districts in active use (very noticeable surges on the credentials server during login at the beginning of each class.) if you're going all dumb terminal, the bandwidth requirement jumps a lot. Keeping school software within the school system allows use of MUCH cheaper "student" licenses. It's was having to buying full price "general" licenses that killed the library effort here. Re: Nifty GFiber community access project in KC Which is why this is cheaper to deploy with Google Gbit since they give schools/libraries free Gbit. When I worked at a small nonprofit, we used a service called TechSoup to get great prices on software. It isn't available for schools, but nonprofits and libraries can join, and the discounts are enormous. We were getting MS Office for $20 a pop and Win7 for $8 each. But before someone thinks about trying to slip through their verification process, know that they do thoroughly check eligibility. The sign-up process takes a little time, but man is it worth it for an organization with a tight budget. ?www.techsoup.org/ Re: Nifty GFiber community access project in KC That's why the libraries have in house copies on all the computers, but the online licenses were different. Re: Nifty GFiber community access project in KC True. I'm not saying these could be used for online access, but there are many 501(c)(3)'s that probably don't know about this and could really use it. If you can't get software into people's homes via broadband because of the cost, then get it as close to them as possible. In some areas, that may mean libraries, but community centers operated by local nonprofits are another avenue. Licenses will of course be their biggest challenge. Some publishers might give this project a price break to see how this plays out. They would benefit from getting a new generation of users learning their product that would normally not be able to access anyway. Is plausible that some publishers would allow applying existing discounted single user licenses for schools/libraries to apply to this project as long as there is a working checkout system. I'd bet many would want to be involved with the project after at least one app proves to work out.

Source: http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Google-Fiber-Closes-Deal-to-Acquire-iProvo-Network-125087

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