A technicality in the legal agreement between Overland Park, Kan., and Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) Fiber has caused the city to wave a yellow flag in front of the search-engine-and-more's fast-moving ultra-high-speed broadband network plans.
While city officials didn't specify what, exactly, was bothering them, The Kansas City Star suggested in a story that this issue was a liability concern in the legal agreement between the two parties that needed to be resolved before the matter could proceed. A vote to approve or reject the agreement is expected to be held Oct. 14 after both sides have further studied the matter.
"I appreciate Google being interested in our community because Overland Park is one of the best cities in the country," council member Paul Lyons said in The Star's story. "There is so much excitement about Google Fiber and I know people think we should blindly go forward, but I think we need to look at this in a dispassionate way and have due diligence."
That means going back over the details of how Google will create a fiber network that it says will offer symmetrical Internet speeds up to 1 Gbps as well as Wi-Fi connectivity and free service for public facilities.
Overland Park's reticence to rubber-stamp the network buildout is rare enough to make news. Every other community, including those where the incumbents are now offering up competition such as Austin, Texas, and Provo, Utah, have enthusiastically waved a green flag. Overland Park, in fact, is the only one of seven Kansas City-area communities to question the buildout at all.
For more:
- The Kansas City Star carried this story
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