the history of San Jose and broadband service

This has been going on a long time.

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/San+Jose+First+California+City+to+Get+Cable+TV+Competition+From...-a018420787
June 1996:
The San Jose City Council voted unanimously to award a cable television franchise to Pacific Bell Video Services (PBVS) at its meeting today. San Jose residents will be the first to benefit from cable tv competition between Pacific Bell Video Services and an incumbent cable service provider in California.

Pacific Bell Video Services plans to launch commercial service over its advanced communication network in San Jose later this summer. "San Jose residents have been demanding an alternative to their existing provider and Pacific Bell Video Services will offer San Jose top-notch service," said Steve Harris, vice president of external affairs for PBVS. "We would like to bring the same high-quality service to other California cities through our wireline and wireless networks."

Pacific Bell is currently building an advanced communications network in San Diego and has plans to launch wireless cable television in Los Angeles, Orange County and the San Francisco Bay Area in 1997.


http://www3.sanjoseca.gov/clerk/Agenda/01_30_01docs/1_30_01_2.12.htm
January, 2001:
AT&T Rebuild of Pacific Bell Cable Facility – Negotiations have been ongoing since September of 1999, and were complicated by a significant related issue – Heritage Cablevision of California's (now AT&T Broadband) desire to begin rebuilding the old Pacific Bell cable system. In 1997, PacBell decided to abandon its cable television effort in San José. Under terms of the City’s settlement agreement with Pacific Bell, the system could be sold only to the holder of a valid cable franchise in San José. Subsequent to this, Heritage purchased some of Pacific Bell’s abandoned cable plant.

However, the City does not believe Heritage currently holds a valid franchise, since control of Heritage’s cable system has been transferred on several occasions without seeking City approval – first from Gill Industries, Inc. to Heritage Cablevision of California, then to TCI and then to AT&T Broadband. Efforts to find a mutually acceptable solution that would allow AT&T to begin rebuilding the PacBell System while protecting the City, led to a settlement agreement that was approved by the City Council last December.

Resolution of this issue consumed some five months of negotiations, however the resulting settlement agreement obligates Heritage to rebuild not only the area where Pacific Bell was building its system, but nearly all other areas of the City of San José, as well.

The rebuilt system will eliminate the antiquated A/B switches, and will provide advanced cable subscriber services to all of the City’s residents. Phase One of the rebuild, which includes the same sections of the City covered by the old PacBell system, will be rebuilt within 18 months. The rest of the City will be rebuilt within 5.5 years. AT&T has represented that the new system will meet the Mayor and City Council’s goal of having a “state of the art” cable subscriber system in that the system will be capable of providing any new analog or digital cable services that enter the market.

Remaining Negotiations – Despite the issues resolved in the Settlement Agreement, a number of other issues of significant benefit to the City and the community remain unresolved. Among these is support for Public, Education, and Government (PEG) Access and for the creation of an Institutional Network (INET).

The INET, a fiber optic system designed to carry voice, video and data, would connect government buildings and would also link together the City’s 19 school districts and roughly 200 school sites. The franchise extension action before the City Council on January 30, 2001, will allow the renewal discussions to continue in a manner consistent with federal law.

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2002/06/17/story5.html
Jun 16, 2002, 9:00pm PDT

San Jose has approved a list of requirements that AT&T Broadband must meet to have its cable franchise renewed, threatening that the three-year battle between the city and its cable operator will drag out for another four to six months unless the company negotiates a settlement this month.

The newest delay in a long-promised upgrade to San Jose's antiquated cable TV system leaves two-thirds of city residents, or about 100,000 homes, still without high-speed cable modem access -- an ironic problem for a city that presents itself as the world's high-tech capital. AT&T Broadband says it doesn't want to spend up to $150 million to wire the rest of the city for high-speed Internet access until it has its franchise renewal.

http://articles.latimes.com/2003/may/31/business/fi-rup31.7
May 2003:
Comcast Corp. is suing San Jose, alleging city officials are seeking to have the No. 1 U.S. cable television service provider build a local telecom network in exchange for operating rights for Silicon Valley's biggest city.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in San Jose, claims the city has illegally used franchise renewal talks to force the cable provider to construct a voice, data and video network free of charge for the city's use.

The cable provider claimed in its lawsuit that San Jose was violating federal law governing cable franchise renewals and that the cost of its desired network would be passed on to local Comcast subscribers, which in California would be considered an unlawful tax.

http://www3.sanjoseca.gov/clerk/Agenda/051106/051106_02b.pdf

April 2006:
RECOMMENDATION
Adoption of a resolution opposing AB 2987 (Nunez, Levine), The Digital Infrastructure and Video Competition Act of 2006.

http://sanjose.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id&event_id=1475&meta_id=544455

Nov 2015:
Approve a Master Encroachment Permit between the City of San Jose and Google Fiber, Inc. (Google Fiber) for the installation of a community-wide, residential high-speed fiber network service.

http://www.govtech.com/network/Google-Fiber-Delays-San-Jose-Rollout.html

Aug 2016:

San Jose leaders said Monday that they're hopeful Google's future plans -- even if services take a different shape or form -- will involve the city, especially after nearly two years of discussions over how to give residents faster connections.

"The fiber ball is entirely in Google's court," said city spokesman David Vossbrink. "We're very optimistic that their plans for extending their high speed broadband system will include San Jose, even if their original schedule gets modified so they can take advantage of technology advances that might be potentially less disruptive."

"Google indicated that they are exploring more innovative ways of deployment that overcome some of the challenges they are facing in their current builds," the report said.

Officials in Sunnyvale said Google has told the city it remains committed to their project.