The City of West Des Moines, IA has settled a lawsuit filed by Mediacom, which had claimed the City broke state laws when it issued $40 million in bonds to build out a network of underground conduits for fiber optic cable in partnership with Google Fiber, according to the Des Moines Register. Google was to have exclusive use of the network.
West Des Moines admitted to no wrongdoing but agreed to pay Mediacom nearly $600,000 in the settlement, and it will allow Mediacom to access parts of the city-owned fiber-optic network. In return, Mediacom dropped its lawsuits and related filings. Even though Mediacom won the settlement, it was Mark Strama, Google General Manager Expansion Markets, who was celebrating.
“Last night, the West Des Moines City Council once again confirmed its commitment to bringing fast reliable internet and choice to the residents of their city. The vision of this project — a city-wide network that offers competition and choice in their internet services — is becoming reality,” Strama wrote, in a blog post.
Google Fiber is close to completing the necessary technical requirements to connect customers to the first section of the network and will begin signups for service in sections of the northeast corner of the city in the next few months. It is also finishing up construction on its retail location in Valley Junction, IA.
“At Google Fiber, we believed in that vision and its promise since our first conversations with the city. We’re excited to be one of the first tenants on this network, and we’re looking forward to providing West Des Moines with more than one way to get online,” Strama added.
Google Fiber announced its expansion into Iowa in 2020, with the agreement to build out West Des Moine. But the project hit a snag when Mediacom sued the city claiming that it broke state laws by issuing bonds for a project without opening it up for competitive bids.
By J. Sharpe Smith, Inside Towers Technology Editor
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