Gold noted that most cities normally require that providers pay 3% to 5% of subscription revenues from customers to offset such costs. Google, however, isn't required to pay such fees in Kansas City, they said.

"Aside from free electricity, rights of way and more, the subscriber revenue fees aren't there either," he noted. "It looks like Google got a real sweetheart deal. Other providers should be pretty unhappy."

One supporter of the Google project, Fred Campbell of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, even called the regulatory concessions and incentives from Kansas City area local government agencies "stunning" in a .

One county in the Kansas City area charged Google nothing to hang its wires on municipal utility poles that are usually off-limits to communications companies, Campbell wrote.

The city of Kansas City, Mo., also agreed to pay for power at city locations and offered space to house Google equipment at no charge under a so-called " " between the parties.