Google's $1 fiber deal will cost Provo, Utah $1.7m

Isn't this what always happens...

... whenever we let government, at any level, spend money? They piss away a shed load on an ill conceived and pooply* implemented idea, then spend even more on giving whatever value they didn't destroy to some politically connected kleptocrat.

The only surprise is that we still let the fsckers have control of anything more valuable than the biscuit barrel.

* This was, of course, a typo made while attempting to type the word "poorly". I was about to correct it, but realised that the typo was more accurate and expressive than the intended word could ever be.

"Part of the problem, it seems, is that Provo has laid so much fiber under its streets since it started building out its network in 2008 that it no longer knows where it all is.

The contractor that originally buried the cables didn't keep records, so the city will now need to pay a civil engineering firm around $500,000 to find them."

With piss poor management like that no wonder why the company was operating at a loss.

$1.7m may seem like a lot but when you consider that Google supplies schools, libraries, etc with free Gigabit internet it's a steal. Also Google is putting up $18m of it's own money to fix and update the network so it's not like Google is getting this for nothing.

I personally can't wait till Google fiber is everywhere. I'm tired of cable companies, who have a conflict of interest, nickle and diming us for internet access. Time to catch up with the rest of the world when it comes to speed and cost of internet access.

Blame it on the contractor

"The contractor that originally buried the cables didn't keep records, so the city will now need to pay a civil engineering firm around $500,000 to find them."

Couple of points here

1) They just handed out a lump sum of cash and said "get on with it"? No emails detailing when and for how long roads would be closed etc?

2) Considering its only been done within 5 years, look at your own paperwork and restore the emails from those members of staff they are using to pass the buck onto.

Once again, civil authority proving that Governments of all stripes cant be trusted and would have gone bankrupt if forced to play in the real world (like those company's who fund them through taxes)

quantum leap

do these jerks know what a quantum leap is? I always laugh when someone uses that term to describe a 'big' change in something when in actual fact, a 'quantum leap' is the smallest possible state change. Doh.