Charlotte's popular public radio station, WFAE 90.7, held an on-air conversation about Google Fiber with Charlotte city leaders yesterday. Representing the city of Charlotte were Phil Reiger - Assistant Director, Charlotte Department of Transportation; the city's designated project manager for the Google Fiber effort, and Jeff Stovall - CIO for the city of Charlotte.
WFAE reports:
City officials are working closely with Google on logistics and planning for the potential network, studying everything from placement of utility poles, water and gas lines to housing density as they study the feasibility of laying thousands of miles of fiber optic cables in the city.
The city has until May 1, 2014 to complete a "Fiber Ready Checklist". Google's website says:
We’re asking cities to provide us with information that can speed up planning and construction (e.g. maps of poles, conduit, existing water, gas, and electricity lines). We also ask that they streamline processes (e.g. permitting procedures and access to local infrastructure) to make it easier for a construction process of this scale to move quickly.
Google hopes to have updates on which cities will get Fiber by the end of the year.
Hear the audio recording of the Google Fiber discussion on the WFAE website.
