Right about now, just about every community in America would like a piece of Google.
Us too.
Google has its hands in just about everything, but is best known these days for its market-domineering search engine and its talent for selling advertising.
The company is planning to test ultra-high speed broadband networks in one or more communities in the United States. The networks will deliver Internet as astounding speeds — more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today.
For those of you with a technical bent, the speed is more than 1 gigabit of information per second. As Mark Twain would say, that's desert jackrabbit fast.
Google plans to offer service at a competitive price to at least 50,000 people and as many as 500,000.
The race is on until March 26. That's the deadline for communities such as ours to provide information on how and why we should be the test market for this experiment.
To our region's great credit, Hickory is partnering with Lenoir in making its pitch for the system. The Newton and Sawmills city councils, among other communities, have also endorsed the project.
The competition for the experiment is as fierce as you might imagine. Who wouldn't want blinding-fast internet service to use to attract jobs and industry?
One of the reasons communities are so anxious for the service is a need for competing Internet services. The big dog in high-speed Internet service in most markets is the cable television provider, which usually has something of a market monopoly. And to be charitable about it, the cable TV companies don't have great track records in terms of customer service.
The decision to promote the Lenoir-Hickory venture as "Google Holler" admittedly caught quite a few of us off-guard. The name brings to mind images of Snuffy Smif and moonshine. But as others have pointed out, the name is no more quaint or corny than Yahoo! or even Google itself. Point made.
We're particularly pleased that Hickory and Lenoir, traditionally separated by more than the mere 20 miles of highway connecting them, decided to partner on this venture.
However this comes out, the partnering of two towns across two counties is a great idea.
As some guy in a trench coat once said, this may be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement