“Google aspires to be a different kind of company” says a closing line of Alphabet’s Code of Conduct posted on its investor relations page. The phrase precedes the final sentence: “And remember… don’t be evil, and if you see something that you think isn’t right – speak up!” Google’s 2021 Supplier Responsibility Report contains sections dedicated to “Laying a foundation for fairness,” and “Creating safe and healthy workplaces,” and “Setting a high bar for ethics.” The report creates supplier expectations for Google: “We expect our suppliers to uphold high ethical standards” which includes not engaging in “illegal practices.” “To meet these standards,” the document states, “we encourage companies to disclose information about their business activities.”

The report goes on to state that “We want to leave every supplier’s workplace, community, and ecosystem we touch better than we found it” and that “Our baseline is to ensure that Google treats workers with dignity and respect, maintains safe and healthy workplaces, and holds suppliers to high ethical standards.” Google.org claims as its mission to combine “funding, innovation, and technical expertise to support underserved communities and provide opportunity for everyone.” The approach of the organization, it states, is to help “provide comprehensive support for marginalized communities.”

Google Fiber’s Texas Expansion

On February 10, 2010, Google announced plans “to build and test ultra high-speed broadband networks in a small number of trial locations across the United States” with “speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today with 1 gigabit per second, fiber-to-the-home connections.” This project would eventually become Google Fiber.

On April 9, 2013, Milo Medin, Vice President of Google Fiber announced that Austin, Texas would become the first Texas city with Google Fiber. Mark Strama, head of Google Fiber in Austin, told the Austin American-Statesman at the time that the company was “building thousands of miles of fiber throughout the city in a matter of years.”

By 2015, Google Fiber’s plans expanded to include San Antonio with a “plan the layout of over 4,000 miles of fiber-optic cables—enough to stretch to Canada and back—across the metro area.”

Google Fiber’s Texas Subcontracting

A review of public right of way permits in San Antonio and Austin dating back to 2015 reveal a network of at least 46 subcontractors used by Google to install its fiber broadband network in these two cities.