Google’s currently hard at work on the east coast, bringing their Fiber service to a number of cities in North Carolina. And, according to North Carolinians, Google’s next move will bring them straight across the country to the west coast: namely, Portland.
That’s what some Google employees apparently said in North Carolina this past week, at any rate.
Oregon Live reports that after an event in North Carolina, a Google manager — apparently inadvertently — mentioned that the company was next going to be announcing fiber service in Portland, OR.
Google has been hard at work in North Carolina for the past several months: back in January, the tech giant announced that it was officially going to plop down cables and sign up customers in the Charlotte and Raleigh metro areas. An event related to that rollout was where the Google employee made their apparent oops.
A local entrepreneur told Oregon Live, “We were talking afterward and they came right out and said Portland is going to be the next city. It kind of caught me off guard. I almost thought one of them told me something they weren’t supposed to.”
Oops.
Portland has been on the expansion shortlist for over a year and, as Oregon Live points out, signs have been pointing for nearly as long to an eventual likely “yes.” Google has already secured a franchise agreement and certain tax law changes it was looking for. The company has also posted Portland-area job listings and sent representatives to meet with town and city leadership in Portland’s suburbs.
In a statement to Oregon Live, Google merely said, “It’s great to see people excited about what’s next for Fiber, but we don’t have any announcements for now.”
Google Fiber coming to Portland? That’s the chatter in North Carolina [Oregon Live via DSL Reports]
by Kate Cox via Consumerist
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