Google Fiber (NASDAQ: GOOG) is slowly making progress toward setting up service in Portland, Oregon, with the latest development being city approval for the company's first "fiber hut."
According to The Oregonian, the 500-square-foot hut will be placed in Southwest Portland and will be the first of several eventually serving the area.
A fiber hut is a location where fiber terminates at the optical line terminal (OLT). According to Google, a hut typically serves no more than 12,000 premises and usually contains one or more Local Convergence Point/Fiber Distribution Nodes (LCP/FDN).
Google has yet to announce Portland and an official market for Google Fiber but the company started hiring local employees and has been holding talks with neighborhood associations to map out fiber routes, The Oregonian reports.
The city's approval comes after Google last year gained exemption from an Oregon state property tax law, which had previously held up Google Fiber's efforts to get service up and running in Portland.
In April of this year, Google signed an agreement to build fiber huts in Portland for use in delivering its 1 Gbps service. At that time, neighborhood association members told The Oregonian that Google had mentioned summer 2016 as a potential starting timeframe for construction.
In addition to seeking construction permits, Google has also reportedly been working on gaining access to utility poles in Portland, having already signed a deal with Portland General Electric and Pacific Power and closing in on another pole access deal with CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL).
A lengthy planning and discussion process before official announcement is not uncommon for Google Fiber market launches. Last month, Google was said to be in the final stages of approval for fiber broadband service in San Jose, California, after more than two years of talks.
For more:
- read this Oregonian article (via Government Technology)
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