News Release
March 10, 2010
Five East Bay cities join forces to attract Google project
Five East Bay cities are joining forces to apply to be one of Google's test sites for its Google Fiber for Communities project.
Concord, Pleasant Hill, Martinez, Walnut Creek and Clayton are asking for local residents to help bring ultra-high-speed Internet connections to the region. The project will provide Internet speeds "more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today," according to Google.
The high speed connection has many benefits for businesses, hospitals and schools, in addition to faster download speeds for residents.
For example, with 1 gigabit per second, health clinics will be able to stream 3D medical images and households will be able to download a full length HD movie in less than 5 minutes.
Google plans to test the high-speed connections in different locations throughout the country. The five-city East Bay region is a prime candidate for the Google experiment because of the significant number of residents, medical and educational facilities, research and development companies and corporate offices.
As a first step, Google is putting out a request for information (RFI) to help identify interested communities and welcomes responses from members of the public as well as local government. Google will collect responses until March 26, and will announce its target communities later this year.
To nominate Concord, Pleasant Hill, Martinez, Walnut Creek or Clayton, visit www.google.com/appserve/fiberrfi/public/options.