Area towns preen for Google

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CORRECTION

A front-page story Saturday gave an incorrect speed for most home Internet systems. Most homes now get a maximum speed of about 7 megabits per second.

****** The Triangle is getting all googly-eyed.

Google has offered to rewire an entire community, free, with Internet service more than 100 times faster than what most people experience. Think gravel road meets Autobahn.

Transfixed by the chance, local cities are bragging about their technology geeks, touting their reputations for innovation and showing their love of Google.

The California company has been inundated with attention since it announced its experiment on Feb. 10 even though details are scarce.

This much is known: Google would pay to string and bury fiber optic cables in one or more communities to provide Internet speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second. Most homes now get speeds of 50 megabits per second. The company has indicated it wants to offer open access so phone carriers, cable companies and the like may be the ones that end up selling it to homes.

More people pushing for faster Internet connections would increase the company's hold as the nation's most prominent search engine. That could translate into advertising revenue for the company.

They're also trying to set an agenda in advance of a national broadband plan that is part of the federal government's economic recovery plan. The Federal Communications Commission is expected to bring its long-awaited national broadband plan to Congress on Tuesday. Parts of the U.S. lag behind European and Asian nations, with Americans often paying more for lower speed, said Benoit Felten, an analyst for Yankee Group, a Boston-based technology research firm.

'A real shift'

The prospect of ultra-high speed capabilities has given rise to endless scenarios of opportunity in local tech, education and government circles. More data being pushed through faster has implications for research, for doctors and patients and classrooms. Not to mention, no more waiting for YouTube videos to buffer. Movies could take just minutes to download.

"It's almost incomprehensible to me," said Lee Bolin, a Raleigh resident and IBM software engineer who contacted city officials to urge them to apply. "It could mean a real shift in how we look at the Internet and how we deliver content."

Cables that would have to be installed underground through large areas and strung from telephone poles in more established neighborhoods, a big logistical undertaking. It would mean tearing up roads, sidewalks and rights of way, something that Google acknowledges is a huge undertaking and something it will need backing from local leaders to do.

But the project speaks to a larger desire of Google to see what happens when a community can have access to really fast Internet connections as well as to amplify the national dialogue over broadband access. Of course, a faster Internet could also help Google's bottom line.

Google, N.C.?

The grass-roots response to Google has been immense, with Facebook groups popping up around the country, including several in Durham, Raleigh and Chapel Hill that have attracted hundreds of enthusiasts. Google hasn't tallied an exact number of submissions, but says it has gotten applications from both municipalities as well as thousands of individuals ahead of the March 26 deadline.

Among the most extreme tactics so far? Topeka, Kan., renamed itself Google, Kan., for the month.

"People want better and faster broadband whether it's provided by Google or someone else," said Dan Martin, a Google spokesman. "We want to see more people online, and we want to see the Internet become easier and faster."

Raleigh's pitch will mention that Forbes named it most wired city in the nation this month.

Cary, home to software giant SAS, will point to its innovative population, many of whom work for technology and pharmaceutical companies in Research Triangle Park. Chapel Hill and Carrboro, which submitted a joint proposal, say they have a top-notch research hospital and a mess of college students who'd be eager consumers of the high-speed Internet connection.

And Durham? They've got Duke University and its equally well-known research hospital, N.C. Central University and a whole bunch of people that are really, really excited about it. A few thousand are expected to gather Thursday in the Durham Bulls Athletic Park wearing the colors in Google's logo to send the message, "We Want Google."

The company has said it's willing to try out the experiment at one or more trial locations that have 50,000 to 500,000 people. Communities could mean several neighborhoods or entire cities. The company will decide by the end of the year and likely will keep their selections diverse to show a range in geography, income, population size and current access to technology, Martin said.

More than anything, Google wants to make sure that it ends up in communities that will help get the network up as soon as possible.

Time Warner unfazed

Time Warner, which handles the bulk of residential Internet access in the area, is eying the local interest in Google's project but said it's already trying to increase the bandwidth of local networks to speed things up for businesses and residential users.

"Competition is nothing new to us," said Melissa Buscher, a Time Warner spokeswoman.

Even with all the unknowns, the fiber project would be seen as a huge feather in any community's cap, said Joe Fredosso, president of MCNC, a nonprofit organization that looks to improve the technology network in North Carolina's educational system.

"This is a great opportunity for a metropolitan area to partner with arguably the most recognized brand in corporate America today to become a city of the future," Fredosso said. "We need examples like this to really show what a very high speed broadband environment can do."