Local Google project expensive
Ultra-high-speed Internet experiment generates excitement
Two companies providing broadband service on fiber-optic cables in Juneau both said they have the capacity to bring ultra-high speeds envisioned by Google to the city, but the high cost of delivering fiber to each home would prove expensive.
Costs to dig and place lines are three times higher compared to other cities also applying to be Google's test city for an Internet experiment to deliver 1 gigabit-per-second service.
Like hundreds of cities across the nation, Juneau is answering a request for information put out by the company last month to build and test "a small number" of trial locations around the United States.
Both GCI and ACS have undersea cables with enough "dark fiber," or room, for the project, company representatives said. But the service could not reach individual homes and businesses with Juneau's current infrastructure, GCI Manager Pam Johansen said.
GCI supports community applications to Google to be a test site but has too many questions to support the project itself, Johansen said.
"There's not enough information out there as far as what Google wants to do," she said, adding that building the infrastructure could cost millions.
ACS supports Juneau's bid and the project, General Manager Robert Varness said.
Varness has participated in Juneau Broadband, a group organized by the Juneau Economic Development Council to fill out Google's application for the city and generate buzz among residents.
Google would face increased costs in Juneau - three times more expensive, according to Varness - to run fiber in the ground to every household or business in the community.
"On the other hand, Juneau has easy access to power poles and a significant amount of aerial fiber," he said. Aerial fiber runs next to telephone wires.
Varness said the company's undersea cable networks could support the ultra-high-speed connections to and from Juneau envisioned by Google. To triple capacity between Alaska and the rest of the network, ACS purchased the Alaska-Oregon Network (AKORN) in 2009.
AKORN has about 1,900 miles of cable with landings in Whittier, Juneau and Valdez on one end, and Nedonna Beach, Ore., on the other with ground cables linking to Nedonna Beach, Hillsboro and Portland, Ore., and Seattle. It can move enough data to download 35 feature-length films and more than 457 CDs every second.
Another sub-sea network owned by ACS stretches 1,865 miles from Anchorage to Florence, Ore.
The ACS system carried a price tag of about $175 million.
GCI has similar networks but could not provide details for this story.
A party sponsored by Juneau Broadband Saturday night at The Hangar drew hundreds of people in the first few hours, many of them using banks of computers on loan from the University of Alaska Southeast to "friend" the group on Facebook.
Google is looking for community support before it picks locations, and towns across America are pulling stunts to get the company's attention.
City officials in Holland, Mich., created a cartoon superhero to entice Google to build its network in its sewer system. "Sewer Man" wears a red costume with a roll of toilet paper drawn across the chest, according to an online news site in Silicon Valley that cried, "Come on America, get a grip."
Saturday's party in Juneau, with buttons, a raffle and free food and beer, was one way to show interest, Juneau Broadband volunteer Joel Irwin said.
Irwin is a Juneau Empire employee.
Andrew Perez attended Saturday's event after hearing about it on Twitter. He said people in Juneau who are connected seem excited about the city's chances of becoming a Google test city, but those who aren't on Twitter and Facebook haven't shown any enthusiasm.
The deadline to answer Google's call is Friday.
• Contact reporter Kim Marquis at 523-2279 or kim.marquis@juneauempire.com.