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"We view this, in a sense, as exploiting a moment in time," Corbato said. The telecom boom of the late 1990s led to a glut in fiber assets, and the subsequent bust put undeveloped fiber on the market at bargain basement prices. "The sense of urgency in acquiring these assets has been tied to the unique opportunity that's been presented...The spot market for fiber is already going up, and most people expect these assets will get gobbled up."
Corbato says he has noticed signs of increasing interest in dark fiber from private enterprise of late, most notably among large financial institutions. Meanwhile, in December, cable giant Comcast signed a $100 million-plus deal to buy long-haul dark fiber to build out its network.
A Level3 spokesman declined to comment when told of Google's job posting.
Corbato also declined to speculate about Google's plans. But he said fiber optic expertise is a natural fit for a company like Google.
"If I were the CIO of an international information technology company, I would think that having these types of skills would be a natural to have within the organization."
This is great. I'm all for capitalism and modernizing the existing infrastructure.
Google appears to be the new century's Microsoft or IBM.
They probably also want to charge for access.
We are in the 21st century and business models yet to be are still being worked out.
I thought this was going to be a story about "Super Colon Blow" bran cereal.