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NC Cities Compete For New Google Broadband Project

By Richard Saunders, The Raleigh Telegram

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

DURHAM - Cities in North Carolina and elsewhere are ready to jump through hoops as they are now competing to be the location for a Google broadband pilot project.

According to a newspaper in Greensboro, the project would provide a one gigabit per second connection, while most broadband connections now are a fraction of that at three to seven megabits.

Greeensboro, Durham, and Chapel Hill have all thrown their hats into the ring.

With Google’s server farm already located in Lenoir, North Carolina, part of the cities’ arguments for locating the pilot project here include the proximity to their existing facilities.

Greensboro’s city leaders have announced publicly that they are pushing for the project and backers have created a “Bring Google Fiber To Greensboro” Facebook fan page that now boasts over 3,750 members.

Durham Will Take Aerial Fan Photo, Create Videos

The City of Durham, with its proximity to the research universities of Duke, UNC, and NC State as well as Research Triangle Park, has an excellent technology pedigree that will help the city in its quest for Google.

According to Sam Poley of the Durham Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, the City of Durham is organizing an aerial photo shoot to help lure Google.

There will be a special “We Want Google” event at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park on Thursday, March 18th.

“Please wear either black, red, blue, green, or yellow,” says Poley. “Participants will be divided by color and will be led out to the field at 11:45am.”

An aerial photographer will capture the event around 12:15pm and the photo will be sent out to the media afterwards.

According to the bureau, Durham Mayor Bill Bell “will be on hand to thank everyone for coming out and supporting this effort.”

In addition, the city will be asking kids in Durham to make video comments about the Google project that will be posted online.

Children from ages 5 to 15 to can visit The Streets at Southpoint Mall on Saturday, March 13th from 11am to 2pm to film “one-on-one interviews on video to talk about this project and what it means for them for the future.”

The video will be filmed in the center court of the mall near the information desk.

Durham also has a Facebook page pushing for the Google project and it has 1,755 fans.

The Durham Chamber of Commerce and others have established a website about Durham’s pursuit of the Google project at www.hifiberdurham.com.

“The thing that will help the most is for people to click on that site and nominate Durham,” said Sam Poley, director of marketing and communications at the Durham Convention and Visitors Board.

Topeka, er... Google, Kansas

North Carolina cities may have some catching up to do with some other national contenders. The city government of Topeka, Kansas actually changed its na,me to Google, Kansas to highlight their desire to have the broadband project located there.

The city also has a Facebook page complete with photos, videos, events, and more that boasts of over 14,000 fans.

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