Google has been expanding into southern/western cities where the government is willing to play ball. If you try to build fiber in SF, people hold it up because the cabinets are ugly: http://stopthecap.com/2011/07/27/att-installs-first-of-495-u... if you do it in New York people turn it into a civil rights/social justice issue: http://www.speedmatters.org/blog/archive/new-york-mayor-bill.... Seattle: http://crosscut.com/2014/12/29/business/123222/google-fiber-....

Places like Kansas City and Atlanta are much more development-friendly. In Atlanta, it doesn't matter how ugly your development is--we're talking about a city bisected by a 15 lane highway. Moreover, these are "up and coming" cities who see fiber as a competitive advantage. San Francisco doesn't feel the need to offer fiber to get tech workers to move there. Heck, they're trying to get the tech workers to move out. A place like Atlanta is the exact opposite.