Google Fiber for Communities Clamors for Speedy Broadband

Google July 13 launched its Google Fiber for Communities Website to keep people in the loop on the company's plans to build ultra-high speed broadband networks.

Google Feb. 11 said it will build these fiber meshes to hurtle Internet data at speeds of 1 gigabit per second. That's more than 100 times faster than most residential broadband connections, paving the way for better application consumption such as video and games.

The plan is to test these networks for 50,000 to 500,000 people across the United States. Google requested volunteer bids, triggering frenzied competition for the free service, which could be used to power whole communities.

Representatives from municipalities all over the country got quite creative lobbying for Google's fiber, renaming islands, jumping into shark tanks and into Lake Superior in the dead of winter.

Google received responses from more than 1,100 communities and 194,000 individuals through March.

Google Fiber Product Manager Minnie Ingersoll said Google is reviewing the requests from all parties and still plans to name its target communities by the end of the year.

The Fiber for Communities Website is geared to keep the conversation going, with opportunities for consumers and municipalities to suggest federal and local policies to spur fiber deployments.

Throughout this process, one message has come through loud and clear: people are hungry for better and faster Internet access.

Google is certainly hungry to provide it to them.

While it denied it wants to be a full-fledged broadband provider, Google's fiber plans assumed greater importance for the company when it unveiled its Google TV service, which aims to marry Web surfing with TV programming. 

If Google entered the broadband carrier business it would command not only the software platforms and applications to drive Google TV, but the pipes used to deliver it.