Google’s High-Speed Internet: Moving Markets with PR
Posted on Thursday, February 11th, 2010
When Google announced plans for a high-speed Internet service, the telecom sector called it a “PR stunt.” No duh. Long the expert in using media to shake up the status quo, Google is leveraging PR to rock the telco establishment.
In case you missed it, Google has unveiled its intention to deploy “ultra high speed” Internet service in selected communities. The goal: to help lift America’s dismal global rankings in broadband availability to citizens.
Not coincidentally, universal broadband access is a top priority of the Obama Administration, whose FCC is at loggerheads over the issue with the telecom sector. Telcos argue that they can’t afford to invest in advanced network build-outs until guaranteed the right to charge tiered rates for high-speed Internet access.
Then up pops Google with its own high-speed offering. The telco response: descrying Google’s move as an unfair “PR stunt pressuring telecommunications companies.”
Is it a stunt? Sure. Google isn’t really doing anything new. They’re already a major customer of companies that provide private, low latency fiber optic networks. Ergo, the cost of Google’s proposed ultra high speed Internet network will be a rounding error compared to what they currently shell out for state-of-the-art private fiber optic infrastructure. But by making the gesture of providing high-speed Internet access, Google showed that its heart is in the right place — on the side of the public interest.
Google made equally effective use of PR last Fall when it rolled out its Smart Metering dashboard to help consumers monitor energy usage. At a time when people are worried about rising energy costs, Google saw the opportunity to help, and at the same time burnished its image as a pro-consumer company. Cost to Google: nada. Will Google ever be a major player in the utility sector’s SmartGrid movement? Probably not, but their involvement even on a token basis is sufficient to help propel market momentum on SmartGrid and move the U.S. quickly toward energy efficiency.
More recently, Google threatened to shut down operations in China after experiencing cyber attacks aimed at accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. Google’s response was a breath of fresh air and a reminder of what we’re dealing with in China: a brutal totalitarian regime that will go to any length to repress freedom of expression. Because Google’s business in China is negligible, some have dismissed their threat as yet another no-cost PR stunt. Perhaps, but it was a brave gesture nonetheless.
To be sure, Google is no saint. Some might argue that Google’s intrusion into new markets and readiness to smack a sovereign nation in the chops are ploys to distract attention from its outsized influence in the search engine arena. Whatever Google’s motive, its recent public initiatives remind us of our responsibility to confront, never appease, those with absolute power, and that the aggressive use of media is the most effective way to do so.
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