Overland Park, Kan., ready to green light Google Fiber

The Overland Park, Kan., City Council is ready to open the doors for Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) Fiber to come in and bring super-fast Internet and accompanying services to the city--and Google is apparently finally ready to take that step forward.

Google, which did not respond to efforts from the Kansas City Star to confirm the deal, started knocking at the Overland Park door in September but things got bollixed when the City Council postponed the deal over some questions about liability issues. Google came back when the city was apparently ready to deal and took its offer off the table in a move that some industry analysts saw as a warning shot to communities throughout the country that too much local regulation was a deal breaker.

Now, "everything appears to be in order," Councilman David White told the newspaper. "We have been ready to deal with Google for several months now, so I am looking forward to it. We've wanted it all along and if this can be pulled off, it will be a good thing for Overland Park and for the citizens. I think they will all be happy."

Google, like AT&T (NYSE: T), has a ready market for 1 Gbps services and, like AT&T's recent Project VIP proposal, is wont to deal with governmental hassles. Having achieved a foothold--and a reputation--in its early markets, Google is now showing that it will be more selective in future markets based on construction regulations, among other factors.

Those concerns, apparently, are a thing of the past, according to Councilman Terry Goodman, who called the probable agreement "an important addition to the city."

Google has pretty much surrounded Overland Park, meanwhile, with construction ongoing in Kansas City, Olathe, Lenexa and Shawnee "fiberhoods."

For more:
- see this Kansas City Star story
- see this Fox4kc.com story

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