Google Received Over 600 Applications for Gigabit Broadband

Posted 03/26/2010 at 4:33pm | by Ryan Whitwam

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The deadline has passed for municipalities to apply for the opportunity to get access to Google’s 1Gbps fiber internet. Google said in a blog post, that they have received over 600 responses from around the country.  The process of narrowing down the applicants will take several months at least.
 
Google’s announcement that only five cities would be getting this next generation fiber network sent a number of city councils and mayors into panic mode. Publicity stunts became common place in small towns and cities in the ensuing weeks. The mayor or Duluth, MN jumped into the frozen Lake Superior, and the mayor of Sarasota, FL took a swim in a shark tank.

The program is only open to municipalities with populations between 50,000 and 500,000. Google plans to make site visits as they narrow the list. If people are willing to risk hypothermia and shark bites when Google isn’t in town, we shudder to think what they’ll do when the Big G comes to visit.

Edit: At the end of the day, Google upped the original estimate of 600 to over 1100.