I think it is safe to assume most of us have read a new article or two about the campaigns by West Des Moines and Des Moines to attract Google Fiber. If you haven’t there is some good information here and here.
Now that we have the background covered, I wanted to take a quick look into the impact of Google Fiber.
Imagine what the fastest internet connection would mean for business. Not specifically for the Wells Fargo’s or Principal’s, but more so for the very strong entrepreneurial community. Think about a small start-up company or an Ad agency were able to work more efficiently via a faster process.
Do you think that company would get the nod for business before a company that has standard internet speeds? Ya-sure-ya-betcha.
There have already been claims that we live in the Social Media Capital of the World….Imagine if we were able to Tweet and post to Social Media sights at the fastest speeds imaginable. Imagine how amazing the 80/35 Music Festival would be if they were able to broadcast the entire concert to the nation!
Do you think our city would get more buzz on these sites?
Fiber would be an amazing boost to our city should we be able to secure it, that much is clear. Yet, it seems we are competing against ourselves, which just doesn’t make sense to me. One of the most telling aspects of Des Moines is the strong sense of community and the great people who call this fantastic city home, including the suburbs. But, there are two separate campaigns going on to secure Google Fiber…within the same city (West Des Moines and Des Moines). My knowledge on the campaigns comes from the recent press, so I may be a little off with my facts.
But, wouldn’t a common campaign with the resources of both cities make more sense?
Why does Fiber only have to go to Des Moines or West Des Moines…and not both, or all of the city?
I know West Des Moines is set on being different, just look at their street numbers.
But,why is there a rift when both cities will benefit from Fiber?
I just don’t get it. I realize there are two seperate city economies and missions, but please someone educate us about these campaigns and why they are separate…
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Pete,
Thanks for posting this and for furthering the AdMaverick’s cause to make Des Moines the social media capital of the world.
I agree with you, this rift is silly. I live out “West” but work in Des Moines. Google Fiber in any central Iowa zip code would be a home run for everyone. Plus, if we were all able to tweet, blog, facebook and upload YouTube videos that much faster, the Des Moines community would provide even more great content, thus allowing the social media capital of the world prophecy to be fulfilled.
Word.
@philkjames – I know the discussion towards a metro wide government has been tossed around. I can see the pros, but am not knowledgable enough to truly know the cons.
@admavericks – It would be really crazy to have Fiber on one side of the road…but not on the other. Granted they are different numbering systems…but that is another pet peeve of mine from my days as a delivery driver.
Thanks for the comment gentlemen.
This is exactly what I was thinking, Pete. If we had a metro wide government, we wouldn’t be worried about our petty differences that happen when we cross 63rd street. We need a unified government in Central Iowa, and this absolutely proves it.
I served for four years on the Iowa Great Places advisory board. When we went to small communities all over the state, one of our mantras was resource and infrastructure sharing, and another was collaboration between adjacent communities. It makes me sad that West Des Moines and Des Moines aren’t working together on this one. People outside of Iowa can’t see the difference.
Could this be an advantage for the Des Moines Metro? Two voices from different angles for one common cause? To me, Google doesn’t seem like a stupid company, I am sure they are aware that two very powerful voices for fiber are in the same region. Does this HELP our cause? They can knock down two birds with one stone?
@justbrady – Good spin to the conversation. I assumed the resources working together would go farther…but maybe your perspective could work too.
@clairecelsi – I hope it is not just politcs working against each other. Seems silly. I know there was a similar rift when the Hy-Vee Triathlon chose to go to West Des Moines from Des Moines…you bet there were politics with that decision.
Claire, I think it’s politics and jealousy. For so long, the suburbs have considered Des Moines to be dysfunctional and never having their “crap” together. Secondly, the past problems that Des Moines has endured has benefited West Des Moines with Jordan Creek Town Center, Wells Fargo, and other projects and endeavors.
A consolidated government would be beneficial, but do not expect that to ever happen. The last thing Johnston, WDM, and other suburban cities want is to have big brother (Des Moines) boss them around and do what they want from an agenda standpoint. To them, Polk County “runs” Des Moines in their eyes. They don’t want to be under that.
Yeah, they should work together, Des Moines is more willing to do it, but WDM, to me, does not want to play ball. At all.
I wanted to report on this question of a regional effort vs. a fragmented “us vs. them” approach, which also surprised me at first. I helped bring the Google Fiber project to WDM’s attention and have since become something of the public face of the project for WDM, having been interviewed on WDM’s perspective in some local TV and news media.
The reason isn’t about politics, jealousy, differences or plain silliness. Because city municipalities and laws vary from community to community, Google’s app allows only for specific cities to apply—so no joint application between Greater Des Moines’ cities. We could have applied as a county and encompassed more people, but again we are spread across multiple counties so there’s no one governing body.
If we had a metro-wide governing body, we theoretically could have applied as one large metro—coulda, woulda, shoulda. But Justin’s point is well-made that multiple voices in Greater DM help our general cause, and WDM is planning to continue the discussion on high-speed fiber whether they (or DM) are selected or not.
The simple fact of the matter is, Google is taking applications from cities and counties – not metro communities.
Regardless – if ANY city in central Iowa were to be selected, ALL of us would benefit from the increased competition. Qwest continues to say that they will not under any circumstances lay fiber to the home. And that is exactly why Google is doing this experiment – to call out the telecoms on their lies and excuse.
Romelle, Jeremy, Ryan – thanks for the comments. As you all say, any push to get Fiber is a good push, regardless of how the formalities are drawn. I guess we’ll have to wait and see how the petitions are received and if Google picks Central Iowa.
Let’s get a couple of things straight first:
1. This would be Google’s first foray into physical hardline plant. Every other company that’s tried to do this after starting in another business has failed miserably. They have a ton of money, sure, but building the network and maintaining it are entirely two different costs. Verizon FIOS is finding this out. McCloud and the State of Iowa found it out at the beginning of the decade.
2. Making their costs “competitive” with other local providers is going to be really difficult without running their business at a loss. They’re essentially going to be investing over $1B in infrastructure and capital expenses just to get the network built, that’s before they even get around to maintaining it, which they’ve never done before. Coming up with a catchy algorithm to put on the internet and make money off of ad sales this ain’t. I’m not saying they are stupid, I’m saying that they will underestimate the costs of maintaining a network like this, the number of personnel involved in maintaining that equipment, and the capital investment required to maintain and expand it regionally, which would be the overall goal. Why do I know this? Because every other company that has gotten into this business has struggled with this.
3. If Des Moines is such an attractive market business wise, why haven’t other overbuilders of this type (WOW, Verizon) come into the region? The reason? The penetration here isn’t good enough to merit the investment. Out East, they could build half as much plant and serve 10X as many people. Same on the West Coast. And the bandwidth would get used. It simply won’t get used in Des Moines, the numbers spell it out.
Have you taken a look around at what Mediacom has done? They just launched a 105 MB product in Waterloo, IA, and a 50 MB product will be launched in multiple Iowa markets by the end of the year. The 105 MB product will be launched in all of Iowa at some point. That 105 MB product is the fastest residential internet product in the country right now. The. Fastest. Yup, faster than Verizon’s own FiOS product that is a fiber to the home build and has little to no availability outside of the East Coast Megalopolis.
I’m not saying your wrong, Pete, the metro should be working together on this. But to say that this will “spur innovation” and “make Des Moines an industry leader in online content” is putting things out there that are a big stretch of the imagination. YouTube doesn’t even make money for Google now, what is the point of being an industry leader in a business that doesn’t even make money?
@Ryan. How much are you willing to pay for internet? HOW MUCH?!?
I’d gather not much more than $60 a month. Well guess what — it’s hard to build and maintain a fiber network for that kind of price point. People aren’t going to pay $200 a month for a 1 GB connection that they use 5% of, and that’s where the price point would have to be in order for them to build an entire fiber network serving the home and maintain it to 99.5% efficiency, which is the industry standard.
It’s easy to shout from the hills: “GIVE ME FASTER INTERNET!!!” It’s a whole lot different when you have to figure out how to get people to pay for the infrastructure and maintenance involved in those networks.
Eric – Thanks for the comment, but you seemed mistaken my post. All I said is I wish the two cities would work together and should we get Fiber our capabilities would be amazing. I don’t recall saying we would become and industry leader, but I think it is fair to say Fiber would spur innovation in the city…and I stand by that comment.
Right, and I’m saying you seem to be mistaken in how the internet works and how this particular network would be built.
Stream 80/35 to the nation? Um, you could do that already with an enterprise connection through any local provider. You don’t need Google to do it. Also, do you think that the bands would sign off on streaming that live to the entire country without wanting some type of proceeds on top of their fee, even if the point was to do it for free?
Trust me, the Telco’s would currently welcome Google into this business, since they’ve made all their money on the backs of the Telco’s spending money to build the networks that connect people to the internet. Can you imagine Mediacom getting into the business of internet search? No? Because that’s exactly like Google getting into the internet provider business.
Would it be better to have competition? Sure. I get the feeling, though, that this is something that Google is going to look at and decide it can spend it’s money better elsewhere.
Unless, of course, the government gives them a shitload of money to build the networks in question via the “National Broadband Plan”, in which case they’d be using your tax dollars to build a network to compete with networks built by privately funded companies like Mediacom, who’ve taken not one single federal or state dollar (in fact, they pay corporate taxes and franchise fees TO the state government, something satellite companies don’t do and Google probably wouldn’t do either, they’d find away around it).
Furthermore, I don’t think you’ve looked at what a provider like Mediacom is providing you currently. Businesses looking for a fiber connection can get one. Residential customer will soon have access to some of the fastest internet speeds in the nation. Currently, I don’t know what you’d DO with 105 MB of bandwidth, much less 10X that much. In the future there will be need, but by the time Google gets their network built in 2015 (it would likely take that long), your local cable and phone telcos may have networks that would compete with theirs.
I don’t understand why innovation requires more bandwidth that you can currently get from most local providers at a decent cost already. The PRESS from an event like this would be nice, similar to the press that Council Bluffs got when Google opened a server farm there.