My hometown of Greensboro, NC is currently vying to be the recipient of Google’s new ultra-high speed broadband network.
From Google,
“Google is planning to launch an experiment that we hope will make Internet access better and faster for everyone. We plan to test ultra-high speed broadband networks in one or more trial locations across the country. Our networks will deliver Internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today, over 1 gigabit per second, fiber-to-the-home connections. We’ll offer service at a competitive price to at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people.
From now until March 26th, we’re asking interested municipalities to provide us with information about their communities through a Request for information (RFI), which we’ll use to determine where to build our network.”
The City of Greensboro held a public meeting last night that gave residents the chance to come and give their opinion on the project – primarily about why we need Google, why Google needs us and what could be done with the network.
I attended the meeting and tossed out the idea of creating a municipal Wi-Fi network that would provide revenue for community based projects. My reasoning for suggesting an idea of this nature was to highlight the need to come up with a point of differentiation – something that will help Greensboro stand out from the crowd.
The local Fox 8 station covered the event last night and I managed to make it into the segment at the very end. Give it a watch and listen to what members of the community had to say about our need for Google’s ultra-high speed broadband network.
