Internet speed in Phoenix, Scottsdale and Tempe could get 100 times faster.
Google announced Wednesday that the Valley is among nine regions the tech company is considering for the next installation of its fiber-optic network, a gigabit Internet network that is up to 100 times faster than broadband.
Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton said on Wednesday during a press conference at the Walter Cronkite School that the installation could be a significant economic opportunity that brings growth and competition to the Valley. Google is already working on the project in Kansas City, Kan., Kansas City, Mo., Provo, Utah and Austin, Texas.
“The three regions already working with Google Fiber have sent everyone else a powerful message,” Stanton said. “They’re willing to make the investment necessary to get ahead of us and to build the infrastructure necessary to make them more competitive than regions like Greater Phoenix. We can’t let that happen.”
Scottsdale and Tempe mayors Jim Lane and Mark Mitchell joined Stanton in a pledge to work together to accommodate Google while the Internet company, based in Mountain View, Calif., looks into adding the Valley to the three existing sites with Fiber.
Phoenix’s Vice Mayor Bill Gates, District 4 Councilwoman Laura Pastor and District 6 Councilman Sal DiCiccio will partner with groups from the Scottsdale and Tempe administrations to work directly with Google.
Lane spoke about the intracity collaboration required if Google were to implement the new system.
“When the cities are working together, that coordination will facilitate a much smoother application and installation of whatever is decided upon,” Lane said.
The project is only in its early stages, said Andrew Silvestri, public policy and community affairs manager for Google.
Silvestri said the network would primarily serve residential areas but eventually would grow to support small businesses across the three neighboring cities. The scale of a project like this is almost unprecedented for downtown Phoenix and the rest of the Valley, he said.
“It’s a big undertaking and potentially means massive construction projects for the city and for the communities,” Silvestri said. “We’re looking to be as least disruptive as we can, and we’re asking the cities to allow us access to existing infrastructure.”
Despite the size of the endeavor, Stanton said there would be no extra public subsidies or tax breaks afforded to Google “than we would do with any other business that we wanted to bring to the city.”
Silvestri said the timeline for the proposal would be similar to that of the existing Google Fiber market in Kansas City, which took roughly two years to complete.
He said Google will survey the area at the end of April and do a joint study on construction with the cities.
Silvestri also noted that Google would conduct an “independent topography study” to assess feasibility of construction in residential areas.
Stanton observed that the U.S. was ranked 35th in Internet bandwidth in a study conducted by the World Economic Forum and was emphatic about the need for improved wireless connectivity to keep up with rapid advancements in technology across the globe in cities such as Barcelona, Hong Kong, and Singapore.
“In a changing economic climate, we have to think of high-speed Internet as a central component to our innovation infrastructure,” Stanton said. “We must wire for success. Google is challenging us to be a partner with them, and this is exactly what we should be doing. This puts us in the game to be ahead of the curve in this competitive economy.”
The introduction of the fiber-optic network came amid prior news that Apple made plans to build a facility in Mesa, highlighting the trend of the Valley’s growing tech scene.
Contact the reporter at Stefan.Modrich@asu.edu.
