The Mercury News reports that they’re swilling Google-tinis in Sarasota, Fla., and vowing to Google-ize the names of their firstborn children up in Duluth. Topeka has been temporarily re-christened Google, Kan. And mayors throughout the realm are vying for the search giant’s favor, from sucking up to it on Twitter to jumping into icy Lake Superior in their shorts.
All this to persuade Google to bring lightning-quick Internet access to their communities.
From Berkeley to Boca Raton, hundreds of cities have joined the high-tech stampede to be chosen as a host for Google’s grand fiber-optic experiment – free installation of a network delivering Internet speeds 100 times faster than what most Americans have ever seen.
Google would pay for installation, running cable under or above ground to every business and home in a host community. It would be an “open access” network that service providers such as phone and cable companies could piggyback on and then compete for customers.
It’s also a way to nudge the federal government to think big with its own national broadband plan. Google says its network would make “possible the emergence of online video and countless other applications” while “ultra-high-speed bandwidth will drive more innovation – in high-definition video, remote data storage, real-time multimedia collaboration, and others that we cannot yet imagine.”
Photo by Mercury News.