The deadline for nominating the city of Portland as a candidate for Google’s super-high-speed fiber network is TODAY at 5 pm. Google is talking about bringing internet with a near-unbelievable speed of 1000Mbit/sec to a select American city. If you’re interested in having Google bring fast internet to Portland, have you submitted a nomination yet? I just did. It’s easy. Go to Portland Community Fiber and follow the link to fill out the form. You’ll need a Google/Gmail account, though. The form asks a bunch of questions, but the only required ones are (1) Name, (2) City, (3) State, (4) Why should Google build a fiber to the home network where you live?
That last one is the tricky one. Here’s what I put for my answer. (You definitely don’t need to write as much as I did, and you can totally steal from me, or from Portland Community Fiber.)
Portland is home to one of the fastest-growing sectors of the so-called “creative class”: young, creative types who are generally ahead of the curve in terms of integration of new technology into their day-to-day lives. That said, internet service is provided by only a handful of unsatisfactory options: the awful Comcast provides the highest speeds but is unreliable and overpriced, while the new Clear wireless upstart is just as frustrating. Portland is a small-to-medium sized city, perfect for this type of project, and its proximity to Google’s facilities in the Columbia River Gorge makes it an excellent candidate. The failed MetroFi boondoggle showed that, if nothing else, interest and demand in citywide internet coverage is incredibly high. Furthermore, Portland Community Fiber has listed five excellent points on their website for consideration (quoted here):
“-Portland has a tremendous amount of technology talent in our community that is underutilized/unemployed because of the economy. They can innovate and do great things given the right opportunities.
-Portland has a growing community of creatives in film, video, music, graphic arts, and multimedia and more who would greatly benefit from ultra broadband.
-Portland is an open source city, with lots of open source software development initiatives.
-Portland is a leader in sustainability and all things green. Ultra broadband can save energy, reduce travel, and help us live more lightly on the planet.
-Portland is “shovel ready” and can get it done quickly and cheaply.”
Anyway, deadline at 5 pm! Portland Community Fiber have done a great job of outlining the benefits this kind of network could bring to the city. But time is almost up. Do it, if you want Portland to have super-freaky-fast internet.
If you people haven’t done this yet, DO IT.
I showed all the people that I did it. A few days ago.
Done. I was a little less wordy than Ned: “Because we are awesome, duh.”
Filling this out wont make a difference. Google will end up going to where they get the best deal, not where the most people beg from.
@ Rusty! –
There is no “deal” for Google. It’s not a money thing. It’s a community fiber thing.
done and done
I think it’s perfect for them. They always position as not-Microsoft but similar, and PDX is not Seattle but similar. Keep your enemies closer.
How can this not come down to money? Google will have to invest a lot of money into building up the infrastructure, this is a long term investment for Google. I’d be shocked if they went somewhere that didn’t give them big tax breaks.
Don’t get me wrong, I’d love an alternative to Comcast! I just don’t think that filling out that page will have any affect on what Google decides.
I don’t understand. I know of no less than 8 ISP’s in the area that can provide Gigabit fiber to Portland. There’s no way Google can do it significantly cheaper than these 8 established ISP’s to Portland unless they hire slave labor to lay the fiber. NO WAY. You can’t get around the last mile issue.
People should be asking for 802.11n/Metropolitan Wan access spots instead. That is far more realistic way to give high speed access.
Mr. or Mrs. mess of a name. You are either intentionally or unintentionally full of shit. You also know nothing about 802.11n. Sorry. Try again.
@luckymike: Good retort. You really proved your point. Kudos.
Yeah…
I guess a more responsible retort would be “name one of the 8 ISPs who would do this” cause clearly there are people out there who would gladly purchase this service. There is no one out there who can provide it today, because the infrastructure isn’t built. If someone built it, there are definitely many ISPs who could provide service (assuming an open infrastructure) on it.
As for 802.11n, it’s really not a good technology for a large scale outdoor network. It’s designed to work in indoor environments, where there are walls and stuff and the signal gets bounced around. Outdoors, you are better off with 802.11b or g, but that’s not going to provide speeds anywhere near fiber.
Not sure if this constitutes proof, but a little research should backup my statements. I’ve spent the better part of a decade working with this stuff and researching these applications. Usually I seek to educate, but sometimes I prefer to be a dick, especially when dealing with anonymous trolls who really want to assert [insert crazy naysaying idea here].