Google: 1,100 Cities Want Us To Build Them Huge Fiber Networks

by Henry Blodget in the Business Insider

The applications are in.  More than 1,100 American cities are vying to become test-markets for Google’s new broadband network investments.  Unfortunately, in the end, only 50,000-500,000 people will be the beneficiaries of it.

(But let’s hope this comes as a wake-up call to the incumbent telcos.  Think there’s demand for super-high-speed broadband networks, fellas?)

Here’s James Kelly, Google Product Manager, on the Google blog:

Since we announced our plans to build experimental, ultra high-speed broadband networks, the response from communities and individuals has been tremendous and creative. With just a few hours left before our submission deadline, we’ve received more than 600 community responses to our request for information (RFI), and more than 190,000 responses from individuals (we’ll post an update with the final numbers later tonight). We’ve seen cities rename themselves, great YouTube videos, public rallies and hundreds of grassroots Facebook groups come to life, all with the goal of bringing ultra high-speed broadband to their communities.