Google recently started FTTH project in Kansas, USA. Last week, Aaron Deacon was in Istanbul for a conference and presented this project. We talked with him after his presentation :
turk-internet.com: Hi Aaron, welcome to Istanbul. You told us a very interesting story about the Google project in Kansas. We are following the same footsteps here. First of all, can you please introduce yourself to us?
Aaron Deacon: I am Aaron Deacon, the managing director of KC Digital Drive.
turk-internet.com: You said that Kansas made its choice and raced with a lot of city to get the fiber investment from Google. Can you tell us a little bit about that process?
Aaron Deacon: Actually, there were 1100 cities that applied to Google for them to come and pilot its fiber to the home project in their city. And the effort begin in Kansas City with a group of entrepreneurs and local business people who were really excited about the opportunity. So they worked on it, and then approached the city leaders and brought them into the process along the way. But it was really an entrepreneur lead effort because the citizens saw a very strong opportunity to build out new infrastructure.
turk-internet.com: During your presentation you said that it was the vision of the Mayor that brought this project to Kansas. We are having some difficulties in Turkey in convincing local governments about the importance of these kind of projects. Could you explain us why Kansas City officers considered this new infrastructure would give some new opportunities to the citizens?
Aaron Deacon: I think, largely you’ve got to credit the vision of the Mayor. So some part of it was just their personality. We happened to have 2 dynamic individuals who really were sort of aware of the next generation infrastructure but even more, saw the capacity of it that could effect the citizens lives. So they were really very interested in open government initiatives, in instituting private innovation practices into how government operates to become more innovative than the way they delivered citizen services and also in other areas that really impact people’s lives. In healthcare, in education they realized that with this sort of an infrastructure there are ways to make some big gains in terms of internet access you can provide and the quality of the systems. So I think that they were very aware of them.
turk-internet.com: You said that 20.000 homes get that service right?
Aaron Deacon: Well in the service area that Google is committed right now, there are about 150.000 total homes and there are an additional 50 – 100.000 homes that they are going to go to once they finish out this area. So, what the take rate ultimately is to be seen yet but in the pre-registeration period there were roughly 20.000 homes that signed up. So, if you assume that those 20.000 will go ahead and actually sign up with the service, than within each of those neighborhoods all the people who didn’t sign up will still have a chance to sign up for service. Therefore I guess the final number will be well higher than 20.000 but we probably won’t know until next year what that is.
turk-internet.com: There was another sentence you said in your presentation: “ Private sector responds to a public sector problem.” What do you mean?
Aaron Deacon: Well this goes back to Google. I mean to the days when they launched this project. In 2009 National Broadband Plan was released by the FCC and Google had representatives in that body. I mean Google was a part of that process so next generation broadband infrastructure network was something that they were interested in. And when the FCC comes up with this plan there is a sense that it was one of those government solutions. You know that word means some the good thing and some not so good things. But Google Fiber Project came internally from them saying “Why do we need to rely on government to solve this infrastructure issue? We are a smart and innovative company and we can come up with the way in ourselves.” So that was how the whole project began at the very beginning.
turk-internet.com: This is your first time in Istanbul – Turkey right? Then here is my last question: How do you feel about Turkey? Please consider this both as how do you like the city personally and also in a FTTH term?
Aaron Deacon: For me sure it’s a lovely city. I’ve very much enjoyed it. I spent a few hours last night walking out in the rain around Taksim Sqaure and down to the Galata Bridge. It’s very lovely.
turk-internet.com: Was it surprising for you?
Aaron Deacon: No not really surprising because I’ve heard wonderful things about Istanbul in particular so it was very exciting. And in terms of FTTH, I am very impressed with the efforts of Turkcell Superonline and Turk Telekom to really bring fiber to all the community. And it seems like they’ve got a pretty ambitious forward looking program. I didn’t realize that demographically the city was so young. I thought it was interesting to see about the age demographics of the city and it represents a very exciting future.
Kaynak : 