More than 600 communities have applied for a chance to be among those Google selects for its experimental 1-Gigabit-per-second, fiber-to-the-home networks.
The Internet search giant said it will announce its target "community or communities" by the end of the year. Google's plan, announced last month, is to reach a total of at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people with the FTTH project. It had set Friday, March 26, as the deadline for proposals.
As of Friday morning, Google had received more than 600 community proposals and more than 190,000 responses from individuals, product manager James Kelly wrote in a blog post.
Local officials across the U.S. have engaged in zany publicity stunts in the last few weeks to try to win Google's affections.
The mayor of Topeka, Kan., issued a proclamation renaming his city "Google" for the month of March, while the mayor of Duluth, Minn., "threw himself into the ice-ringed waters of Lake Superior" and the mayor of Sarasota, Fla., "immersed himself in a tank filled with bonnethead sharks, simply to one-up him,"The New York Times reported.
"We're thrilled to see this kind of excitement, and we want to humbly thank each and every community and individual for taking the time to participate," Kelly wrote. "This enthusiasm is much bigger than Google and our experimental network. If one message has come through loud and clear, it's this: people across the country are hungry for better and faster Internet access."
Google will review the responses over the next few months to determine where the 1-Gbps FTTH networks will be built. Kelly said the company will meet with local officials after narrowing the field.
