Google Broadband Network: Arkansas Bound?

Each small dot represents a city application, and each large dot represents locations where more than 1,000 residents submitted a nomination.

As chronicled here, Google is planning to roll out new ultra high-speed broadband access to sites across the country, and Fort Smith, Mountain View and Monticello in Arkansas want in on the act.

Google solicited communities across the nation to apply for selection as a trial location for its new ultra, high-speed broadband network. Fort Smith, Mountain View and Monticello, it appears, were the only Arkansas communities to apply for the Google gig.  Applications could be submitted through Friday evening, and now Google will begin the process of determining which city or cities make the cut — Google has said it could pick one trial location or multiple sites.  The winner(s) will be chosen by the end of the year.

Google received more than 1,100 community responses and 194,000 individual responses. Some local campaigns went so far as to rename the city.

Here’s part of a release from Google when the program was announced:

We’re planning to build and test ultra high-speed broadband networks in a small number of trial locations across the United States. We’ll deliver Internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today with 1 gigabit per second, fiber-to-the-home connections. We plan to offer service at a competitive price to at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people.

Check out this update from Arkansas Business. Meanwhile, Fort Smith’s The City Wire sat down with Fort Smith IT director Russell Gibson, who spearheaded the city’s application effort.

UPDATE: As of Monday afternoon, Connect Arkansas — the firm contracted with Google to solicit apps from Arkansas — could confirm only Fort Smith and Mountain View as having submitted applications. A Monticello official, however, tells Arkansas Business his city submitted an applications weeks ago.

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