I’m not certain that a local government could ultimately be a good provider of Internet service. Can a city or county that has enough trouble keeping up with roads, sewers, schools, water mains, and emergency services really field a broadband network and continuously put capital into it for upgrades? What we’re really talking about is the local government being able to contract out to Google Fiber, so in one sense, you could say that Google’s lobbying just wasn’t good enough to beat Comcast and AT&T. I don’t see what would prevent Google from building a fiber network independent of the local government, though. Methinks for Google, it’s about sharing the cost with the taxpayers, much like sports teams dump most of the cost of a new stadium on the city.