You Didn’t Notice It, But Google Fiber Just Began the Golden Age of High Speed Internet Access

[Commentary] Google launched what amounts to a religious war in American telecom land.

In a surprising announcement, the Alphabet company known as Google Fiber said it would expand its high speed Internet access services to Huntsville, Alabama — but in a different way that it currently has started up operations in cities like Austin and Kansas City. In cities it services to date, Google Fiber actually lays down the fiber-optic cables that allow it to deliver super-high numbers of bits to customers and businesses. But in Huntsville, it will lease “dark” fiber that will be built and owned by the electric utility in that city. (Dark fiber is passive, unlit by lasers, so not capable of carrying information until someone comes along and lights it.) The Google lease is nonexclusive — any other ISP can show up and provide services — and will allow Google to provide retail gigabit fiber Internet access services to any home or business that Huntsville decides to serve. I am over the moon about this. It’s a similarly exhilarating feeling to the one I’d have if I were a rabid football fan and my long-suffering team just won the Super Bowl. And don’t mock my wonkiness — because you should be celebrating too. The reason this is totally exciting is that this is the model that has been used with enormous success in several other cities — and could be revolutionary here in smashing the current dogma that keeps Americans overcharged and under-served.

[Crawford is a professor at Harvard Law School and a co-director of the Berkman Center.]