Google, Intel Consider Ultra-Fast Broadband for University Towns

Google, Comcast, and Intel are among companies considering a project to bring faster broadband Internet access to more than 30 college towns in a push to spur Web traffic and nourish technology startups.

They're being courted by computing nonprofit Gig.U to finance ultra high-speed networks capable of transmitting movies, games and other data-intensive content at speeds 100 times faster than many services currently available. The Gig.U project wants to bring the service to more than a million Americans living near 37 campuses, such as California Institute of Technology, University of Illinois and Duke University. Blair Levin, executive director of Gig.U, presented the idea to Google and more than 50 other companies at a meeting in Chicago, aimed at removing the biggest roadblock to a nationwide upgrade: a multibillion-dollar price tag. “The obstacle is cost,” said Craig Moffett, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. “There's simply no conceivable way to earn a return on that kind of investment, particularly given that the cable industry is already out there with infrastructure.”