Google Fiber Lottery Preying on Distressed Communities

The Google Fiber for Communities pledge to offer one or more U.S. communities ultra-fast Internet access at one gigabit speeds, is Google's latest stealth manipulation of the public.

• In essence, Google's fiber effort is a cynical national lottery that will result in just one or a few big winners and leave everyone else losers, with nothing to show for all their court jester efforts to entertain and get the attention of Google, the self-described "biggest kingmaker on this earth."
• Apparently operating under Circus promoter P.T. Barnum's cynical "a sucker is born every minute" world view, Google is preying on the severe economic hardship and unemployment of over 1100 communities, by teasing Google fiber riches for one (or a few).
  • (This isn't the first time Google has preyed on distressed communities to extract the maximum gain for Google, see the sordid tale of how Google took advantage of the job-loss-ravaged town of Lenoir North Carolina -- here.)
• Google is cynically urging cities to "dream big" when they know they will crush most all of their Google-generated dreams in the end.

How do we know this Google fiber lottery is stealth manipulation?

• Look at Google's explanation of "Why we are doing this" Fiber for Communities website.
  • Google claims its purpose/motives are only informational.  
  • However, when you look at the site more closely it is a cynical astroturf lobbying campaign that urges the communities to "Take Action" and write Congress to support Google's fiber legislation and to enact Google-friendly zoning regulations in their communities. 
  • At the bottom of the Take Action page, Google says with a BIG wink: "While taking these steps won’t have any impact on whether Google selects a particular community for its fiber deployment, they will allow you to have a direct hand in bringing ultra-high-speed broadband to your community."  Yeah.
    • Google cynically knows that distressed communities will do most anything Google suggests in order to keep "hope" that their "big dreams" somehow will come true. 

If Google's real motive was to promote ultra-high speed broadband fastest (as it announced as part of its "think big with a gig" publicity stunt surrounding the FCC's National Broadband Plan), and not to collect free data on hundreds of communities and to organize communities around the nation to lobby Washington for Google's fiber policies/legislation, why didn't Google just pick a city and do it?

• Why take a ~year to decide?
• Google says the technology is available today and Google prides itself in being able to do most anything faster and better than most anyone.
  • The Federal Government is moving faster on its broadband grants than Google plans to do with its lottery decision...      

In sum, if Google really cared about getting faster broadband to all Americans fastest, it would not be lobbying hard for:

• Broadband-investment-killing Title II regulation of broadband by the FCC; and
• Open Internet regulations by the FCC that would allow consumers to be charged more for using more bandwidth, but would ban Google from having to pay more for YouTube's bandwidth-hogging, inefficient-one-to-one-Internet video broadcasting service.

Don't listen to what Google says, watch what they do.