Greensboro eyes Google's ultra-high speed system : News-Record.com : Greensboro & the Triad's most trusted source for local news and analysis

Local leaders want Google to build its ultra-high speed broadband Internet system in Greensboro.

The $23 billion Web search company said last week that it wants to go beyond software to build a network for Internet users that would be up to 100 times faster than what’s available from current telecommunications companies. That means downloading a gigabyte of data in one second.

Google said it will make the experimental fiber service available to as many as 500,000 people in their homes, and communities across the country are lining up to lure Google.

Greensboro will join such cities as Seattle, Rochester, N.Y., and Duluth, Minn., in submitting applications.

City Councilman Danny Thompson said Monday that he has suggested that the city pursue the project. He will meet with city staff members, including City Manager Rashad Young to plan their strategy Wednesday morning.

“This could be transformative,” for Greensboro, Thompson said.

Such a system, if made permanent, could be a magnet for businesses that need to transmit large amounts of data quickly. It could also mean well-paying jobs for educated workers.

Google is already familiar with North Carolina’s Piedmont, having recently built a data center in Lenoir.

Google’s application process will take place completely through the company’s Web site.

The online form asks such questions as how a government would cooperate with Google to build a complex fiber optic system and the extent of a community’s experience in working with high-tech ventures.

Greensboro is no stranger to advanced telecommunications, having become a major site for AT&T defense programs using major power and fiber optic lines dating to the 1970s.

Already a hub for interstate highways, Greensboro is on its way to being a hub for air shipping when FedEx ramps up its East Coast sorting center at Piedmont Triad International Airport.

Thompson said a fast Internet system like Google’s could further aid that effort and help push the Triad into becoming an “aerotropolis” — an economic development term for a major air hub surrounded by business and industry. High-speed communication is essential to that, he said.

The application process will be intense, competitive and highly technical, said Thompson, who hopes the city can rally as many knowledgeable people as possible to make the best case to Google.

“Let’s just make sure that everybody in the technical community provides input and buy-in, and let’s really get behind this,” Thompson said.

Google says it’s on a fast track with its plan to build the trial system, and it plans to serve a minimum of 50,000 people.

It did not specify how many communities could be involved, only saying it would build in “a small number” of communities.

“We want to get started as quickly as possible and we want to find the right community partners to help us succeed,” said James Kelly, a Google product manager speaking on a company Web site video. “Working with the right community partners, we look forward to seeing what’s possible.”

On its Web site, Google set a March 26 deadline for all applications from interested communities.

After it sorts communities for such factors as construction environment and ability to cooperate smoothly with the company, Google will move beyond the application process.

“We plan to consult with local government organizations, as well as conduct site visits and meet with local officials,” it says, “before announcing our final decisions.”

Contact Richard M. Barron at 373-7371 or richard.barron@news-record.com

gsoagt

February 15, 2010 - 2:12 pm EST

Please!!!! The evil empire of telecommunications (aka Time Warner) needs the competition!!!

ustaxpayer

February 15, 2010 - 2:44 pm EST

WOW!!! Do you mean we are not talking anymore about the Woolworth Museum opening in downtown Greensboro...?? Hello News and Record....please...can we have some more coverage about the Woolworth Museum in Downtown Greensboro???

CopOnTheBeat

February 16, 2010 - 11:51 am EST

Thanks, USTaxpayer. You jinxed it. Hehehe.

When I jumped on the N&R website...what's the first thing I see? How the civil rights museum plays into plans to take advantage of the state's black history.

Hasn't that already been covered in the half-million articles the N&R has done about the museum already? But there's still articles to be done. For example: The toilet fixtures for the civil rights museum rode down historic Elm Street prior to installation. Or..the man who painted the closet on the second floor actually knew someone at A&T who attended classes there a few years after Jesse Jackson.

Give us a break... Enough already...

dcolin

February 16, 2010 - 9:02 pm EST

Hey

Don't read it.
Or avoid the WEB site. It is free.
You obviously are lost.

bbsmith2

February 15, 2010 - 2:14 pm EST

This would be a huge win for Greensboro. After TWC came in and tried to put Greensboro in their tiered pricing plan we need competition for TWC. From a business stand point to have those speeds available will make Greensboro an attractive place to do business.

Another look at this and you will see the amount of jobs that will create. There will be jobs for folks to lay the fiber cable, the technicians to install the systems, folks to provide tech support for the system. Those are just the jobs directly involved with Google, there will also be new businesses interested in Greensboro. With the speeds promised there will be more chances to work from home. To see how much of a positive effect it has on a community check out Wilson, NC and their Greenlight service. It's amazing.

I'm usually against incentives, but for this chance I would make an exception. There are so many positives to this that it makes sense to push for this. Unlike a Dell or other big name corporation this is more of an infrastructure change that while it is mainly Google other businesses and individuals will be able to take advantage of it. It just isn't one company, but the community as a whole that will benefit.

Illiterati

February 15, 2010 - 2:38 pm EST

This network would also give Greensboro similar Internet speeds as Japan, China, South Korea, and several European countries. Even back in 2007, Japan's broadband speed was up to 60 times faster than ours in the U.S.—AND cheaper! (See this Washington Post article for more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/28/AR200708... )

Also see: "U.S. is 15 Years Behind South Korea in Internet Speed": http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2009/08/24/dail...

tloudin

February 26, 2010 - 2:58 pm EST

Yes!

jstevenh1952

February 15, 2010 - 2:41 pm EST

Ahh...the fools rush in. Google has yet to work out the "specifics" on its new internet. Although it has pointed out that it is not looking to be a service provider. The chances of this becomming a competitive service for TWC or DSL is, well let's say "when pigs fly".

In fact if you look at Google's history, they have announced a number of projects in the past just to enjoy the press they gain as "innovators". A great search company with good advertising revenue. But sometimes they appear to be alot of folks with too much time on their hands.

"Transformative"? I doubt it. But what the heck Greensboro, get in line.

http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_14373150

klive

February 15, 2010 - 2:48 pm EST

Great Article!!!!! Thanks

carcrazy

February 15, 2010 - 5:04 pm EST

This would be great for new businesses, although....
An excerpt from the above article says; 'Although Ingersoll said Google "will be funding the deployment of the network" and "would probably be laying some fiber as part of this," the cost to the company also remains uncertain because, she said, Google may work with other Internet providers to set up the system. She said Google's motivation "is to experiment and learn" and that the company intends to share what it learns with others. "We don't have plans to expand beyond the test-bed we're going to build with this."'

Answers a few questions and raises a few more.....
Overall, I would say go for it if there was little to no cost for us.

newkid

....LOADING....LOADING.....LOADING.....LOADING.....Yes! Please!!!

I would love to see this opportunity for Greensboro come to past. But remember the saying, "if it seems too good to be true..." Please council proceed with caution...Don't rush into a decision just for the mere fact of making a decision. With that all aside, this should potentially bring all sorts of jobs to this area if what is being said is true. Lord knows we need all the help we can get!

iambored11112

February 15, 2010 - 2:49 pm EST

Finally. We will get something other than Time Warner. Their anti-customer policies are disgusting, and they are a pathetic company. Trying to limit our USAGE and LIE ABOUT IT!!!! I hope and pray Google's ISP can CRUSH Time Warner in this region.

February 15, 2010 - 3:04 pm EST

By the way, its not 100x faster, Time Warner lies about their internet speeds. They average 5mbps, on a good day and thats being very gracious, Google will be 200x faster if they meet their 1gbps goal.

InventorNC

February 15, 2010 - 5:44 pm EST

I get about the same speed Iambored11112. And sometimes it slows down a lot. For personal use speed is a nice, even a luxury if it is really fast, but for businesses speed is truly a necessity.

In NC the area with the healthiest infrastructure is the Triad. We do need the communications though. The Google deal would be the cherry on top of the sundae.

garync77

February 15, 2010 - 3:31 pm EST

This is an excellent idea. I was able to sample the google wireless connection at the Charlotte-Douglas airpoort and is was amazingly fast. Much faster than Roadrunner, I think more competition is needed in wireless internet connection market.
Equally Europe is light years ahead of the United States in wireless internet speed.

bluecollar62

February 15, 2010 - 3:49 pm EST

Hmmmm--wonder what it will cost....?

rooster8786

February 15, 2010 - 4:23 pm EST

I have no idea what it will cost but Skip Alston, if he can live without his commission on the failed deal, knows where $54 million dollars is that would benefit ALL of his constituents, not just his selected cronies!

ninercha

February 15, 2010 - 4:54 pm EST

All you guys saying "Finally another option other than TW" There are plenty of options out there now! Have you not heard of Clear or Clearwire...whatever they are calling it these days? Speeds are right there with TW and cheaper!

wscbd

February 15, 2010 - 5:00 pm EST

Clearwire has limited availability in this region, and even at its current top 4G speeds is half as fast as what I average from TWC. We need true competition.

February 15, 2010 - 5:32 pm EST

I average around 6Mb on mine...works pretty well

February 15, 2010 - 5:41 pm EST

Exactly. They've capped the Clearwire speed at 6 mbps DL. I average 12 mbps with standard RoadRunner, and that's too slow for my needs.

timflowers

February 15, 2010 - 6:36 pm EST

Clearwire is an option, but in my neighborhood (UNCG area), the speed is only around 1 Mbps, although I'm paying for "up to 6 Mbps". After months of complaining, I've finally gotten their attention and the local area manager says he has engineers working on the problem. It shouldn't have taken this long. But at least they are giving Time Warner a little bit of competition.

jacksonian

February 15, 2010 - 8:52 pm EST

How do you average 12mbps with standard RoadRunner when RoadRunner Standard is limited to 7mpbs and even Turbo tops out at 10mbps?

And if 12mbps is too slow for your needs, what kind of needs do you have?

February 16, 2010 - 1:23 am EST

Jacksonian,

Roadrunner for the Greensboro area is about 15mbps down while the upload speed is about 300kbps. Huge difference in speed up and down.

Now let's take an average family of 4, mom, dad, and two kids. In that household there might be two computers, two mp3 players and a gaming system. Say you have one kid on the PC doing homework, a parent on another PC doing bills or work, and another kid on a gaming system. That's a lot of bandwidth they are sharing.

Now let's look at some extras within that household that are common in some families. There are digital cameras. People take photos of their kids, vacation or maybe of the snow we had and email those photos to family or friends. Maybe they don't email, maybe they upload them to a social networking site like Facebook. They have an mp3 player that they like to download music on to listen. Maybe they have Apple TV, Netflix or another streaming service that they use to download movies and tv shows. Maybe someone is taking a class online that they must upload files of completed work to.

Technology has become so intertwined in our life that we use it a lot more than we realize. Our download speeds have gotten faster, but we still lag behind many countries and we pay a higher rate than those same countries. Our upload speeds are horrible and with uploading photos, gaming and other uses we find ourselves bottlenecked. Why should Time Warner or any other company seek to improve things without competition forcing them too? Should we as consumers be forced to live with that?

February 16, 2010 - 10:28 pm EST

Tell me where RoadRunner is 15mbps in the Triad. I have RoadRunner Turbo and it tops out at 10mbps. I just checked the TWC website which confirms what I'm writing:
http://www.timewarnercable.com/Carolinas/learn/hso/roadrunner/speedprici...

If you guys are getting 12 and 15 mbps, please let me know how.

February 18, 2010 - 4:23 pm EST

http://www.speedtest.net/ is a good place to go and test the speeds you are getting. TWC may not have talked abut this on their website, but when they were going through the tiered pricing plan they bumped the speeds up as a goodwill gesture if I remember correctly. I got a notice around that time that is what they were doing.

As for Speed Test I usually connect to the NYC, NY or Washington DC server. Here is the link to my actual speeds
http://www.speedtest.net/result/721340129.png

Hope that helps

WOW! This is terrific. Greensboro has always been a transportation center and keeping it in the game would be fantastic.
This is a first class project for the city to grab and run with. It fits with the two major FedEx facilities. More will come with a super duper electronic communication system.

It wont hurt the education and other industries here - and the ones that will come here in the future.

I wish the city leaders and all of us success in this exciting venture.

Newspaper Reader

February 15, 2010 - 6:12 pm EST

Whoa, wait a minute! Let me get my pup tent and sleeping bag.

Okay, I'm ready. Where does the line start?

February 15, 2010 - 6:43 pm EST

In Wilson NC, population 50,000, Time Warner was up to their regular tricks of poor service, no choices, and ever escalating rates. The TW office was a dump in the industrial side of town. The city installed their own fiber optic network, called Greenlight, to every neighborhood. It's available to everyone and it's several times faster than anything TW offers, but for less money. Time Warner cried foul, but they now have competition and they've even built a new customer service office in a more convenient location. Greenlight seems to be thriving, though.

If a small town in eastern NC can do this, Greensboro can do it too, with or without Google's help.

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