What Google Broadband Can Do for You

Cities and rural communities across the United States are lining up with requests for information (RFI) and dreams of being chosen.

With promises of Internet speeds more than 100 times faster than average American households (about one gigabit per second), the excitement of those vying to be part of the "experiment" is close to that of kids in a candy store. "There's a lot of enthusiasm out there from people who want better and faster broadband," Google spokesman Dan Martin said. "We've received responses from more than a dozen communities and several thousand responses from citizens." Cities and towns in states such as Virginia, Missouri, New York and others are gearing to apply. Google plans to offer such services at "a competitive price" to at least 50,000 and up to 500,000 people. Groups supporting the opportunity have already sprouted up on social networking sites such as Facebook.com, with Baton Rouge, La., attracting more than 1,500 people less than a week after the company's announcement, Martin said."We're excited [about] what people are going to do with these ultra-high speeds," Martin said, noting that Google isn't trying to compete with the broadband industry. "Our goal in doing this is to push the Internet forward and test and experiment in ways to make it faster for people." Just where and how far that push takes the virtual world is something no one can predict, Martin said.