Updated 26 March
More than 100 cities and counties in 43 states have official and unofficial efforts to develop a pitch for Google’s fiber contest by 26 March. Apparently missing: Delaware, Maine, Mississippi, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Rhode Island and Wyoming. But there’s an unofficial Facebook page for Washington, DC.
On 10 February, Google announced that it was “planning to build and test ultra high-speed broadband networks in a small number of trial locations across the United States.” The company explained:
We’ll deliver Internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today with 1 gigabit per second, fiber-to-the-home connections. We plan to offer service at a competitive price to at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people.
Of course, Google is mum on how it’s really going to make the decision although it has an FAQ. And it’s getting a pile of data: the public citizen form will help it assess broadband availability in a way that’s not possible from public statements from Verizon or Comcast, for example.
Cash-strapped city officials understand the competitive advantage that a high-speed broadband initiative can mean for economics, both business activity and in-migration attractiveness. It will be interesting to see how many cities with official pitches to Google continue to seek ways to fund this infrastructure when they don’t win the Google prize.
This project is an interesting intersection of business and government as well as citizen action and government. There are lots of folks with Facebook accounts who want their governments to be proactive in improving Internet access. What’s sad is that most of them have had no response from a city official — the walls are empty of public official interaction. I hope some of these activists resist the temptation to be discouraged by the lack of attention and, instead, run for office to kick the stick-in-the-muds out!
Here’s my list of reported applicants by state. If you know of others, please add as a comment (along with a link that documents the effort) and I’ll integrate into this list.
City names link to an official page; otherwise, there is a news link or Facebook page. Some FB pages are citizen-run campaigns, not official city pages. I’ve not included fan or group pages that are incomplete or that have only a handful of supporters.
Alabama
Akaska
Arizona
California
- Alameda (news)
- Chico (Facebook – unofficial)
- Cupertino (news)
- Davis (Facebook – unofficial)
- Fresno (news)
- Merced (news)
- Nevada City
- Petaluma (Facebook – unofficial)
- San Francisco (news)
- San Luis Obispo (Facebook – unofficial)
- Santa Clarita (Facebook)
- Santa Cruz (event)
- Sunnyvale (news)
- Ventura (Facebook)
- Westlake Village (Facebook – unofficial)
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Hawaii
Idaho
- Boise (news)
Illinois
Indiana
- Anderson (Facebook)
- Indianapolis
- South Bend (news)
- Westfield (Facebook – unofficial)
Iowa
- Ames (Facebook – unofficial)
- Clinton (Facebook)
- Des Moines
- Dubuque (Facebook – unofficial)
- Iowa City (Facebook – unofficial)
Kansas
- GigaRegion – 3 state joint project (Facebook)
- Topeka (news, Facebook)
Kentucky
- Lexington (Facebook – unofficial)
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
- Ann Arbor (news)
- Birmingham (news, Facebook)
- Detroit (news)
- Grand Rapids (news-pdf, Facebook)
- Holland (Facebook)
- Kalamazoo (Facebook)
- Lansing and East Lansing (Facebook – unofficial)
- Muskegon (Facebook)
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
- Columbia (Facebook)
- GigaRegion – 3 state joint project (Facebook)
- Kansas City (news)
- Kirksville (news, Facebook)
- St. Louis (news, Facebook)
Montana
Nebraska
- Omaha (news)
Nevada
- Las Vegas (news)
New Hampshire
New Jersey
- Jersey City (news)
New Mexico
- Sante Fe (Facebook – unofficial)
New York
- Buffalo (Facebook – unofficial)
- Ontario County (news)
- Rochester (news, Facebook – unofficial)
- Troy (Facebook)
North Carolina
- Asheville (Facebook – unofficial)
- Chapel Hill and Carrboro (news)
- Durham (Facebook – unofficial)
- Greensboro (Facebook)
- Raleigh (Facebook – unofficial)
North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
- GigaRegion – 3 state joint project (Facebook)
- Stillwater (Facebook – unofficial)
Oregon
Pennsylvania
- Allentown (Facebook – unofficial)
- Philadelphia (news)
Rhode Island
South Carolina
- Columbia (news)
- Greenville (news)
South Dakota
- Rapid City (news)
Tennessee
- Knoxville (news)
- Memphis (news, Facebook, announcement)
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
- Bellevue (news)
- Bellingham (news, Facebook)
- Kirkland (news)
- Renton (news)
- Seattle
- Spokane (Facebook – unofficial)
- Walla Walla
11 replies on “U.S. Cities In 43 States Vying For Google Fiber”
New Mexico has a few:
Albuquerque’s official site is: http://www.googlequerque.org
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=379762423707
Farmington (official): http://www.thinkbigfarmington.com/
http://www.facebook.com/Think.Big.Farmington
Los Alamos is at http://losalamoschamber.com/fiber-up-los-alamos-county.htm
Sugar Land, Texas- should be one of the front runners!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Think-Gig-Sugar-Land/10150130281305249
http://www.sugarlandtx.gov/sugarland/thinkgig/index.asp
[…] Fiber”); or Greenville, SC (citizen-powered LED-logo)? Should it be a city from California (there are at least 15 cities reportedly in the running)? Should it be a non-urban area (Google says it wants to offer high-speed fiber to at 50,000 […]
You have Memphis, but you don’t have all the best Memphis links:
The official website:
http://www.memphisgoogle.net/
The official Twitter comments site:
http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23memphisgoogle
One citizen’s supplement to the official site:
http://memphisgooglefiberyes.wordpress.com/memphis-google/
Go Memphis!!
[…] is having a national competition for communities to “win” a Google fiber-optic network to their cities. Thus began the Asheville Google […]
Hi this is Tim from Peoria IL and the Facebook link for our city (above) doesn’t work. The correct link to our Facebook Fan page with over 5800 fans is http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=311726201442
Thanks.
[…] This list, on the Wired Pen blog, is the best I’ve found. […]
Thanks for the great roundup. It would be so interesting to be in Google’s shoes watching all this happen. There is a nice side effect happening in all these places: intense cooperation. Maybe we can all get along after all!
Asheville’s Google fiber home page: googleavl.com
Twitter: #googleavl
And I see you already have the Facebook group listed.
I’m not sure how you’ll add it to the list, but the 3-state area covering parts of Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma have teamed up to submit for fiber. The site is with the official info is at http://www.broadbandbeyondborders.com
[…] Kathey Gill has a list of over 100 cities and counties in 43 states of official and unofficial efforts to lure Google. […]
Here’s a related post that shows why we (citizens) need Google to shake up the U.S. broadband market: FCC Issues New Broadband Stats.