None.
But Blacksburg and Virginia Tech are trying to change that. From Blacksburg Alerts:
Blacksburg and Virginia Tech have teamed up to submit a joint application for Google’s recent push to build ultra-high speed fiber networks in a number of locations across the country. If selected, Blacksburg would be the recipient of Internet speeds 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today.
“Blacksburg was the first community in the world, through the Blacksburg Electronic Village, to explore how the internet could transform business, education, and community interaction,” said Ron Rordam, Mayor of Blacksburg. “More than fifteen years later, we now have a population of citizens, university faculty and students who have demonstrated innovation and creativity as network producers, not just consumers, of high bandwidth applications and services. We believe this is exactly what Google is looking for with their gigabit to the home test bed project, and we are committed to working in partnership with them if Blacksburg is selected.”
The local project team is calling on the community for their help. There are two steps to completing the Google Request for Information (RFI), the government response and the community response. Both are due by March 26, 2010. Residents, artists, businesses and community organizations are asked to fill out a short online form by visiting http://www.google.com/appserve/fiberrfi/public/options and clicking on “Nominate Your Community”.
The form requires a name, city and state, and a paragraph or more explaining why you would like to have Google locate in Blacksburg. Reasons could include the need for increased broadband access for business, education, arts, entertainment, telemedicine, emergency services, etc. Aside from the current benefits a community such as Blacksburg could enjoy, Google is particularly interested in creative thinking and next generation ideas. A sample template response can be found at blacksburg.gov/google.
The community form includes optional fields that ask about broadband connections. Respondents can easily run a speed test on their connection by using the Virginia Tech Community Broadband Map found at http://www.ecorridors.vt.edu/maps/broadbandmap.php. The speed test will allow respondents to immediately obtain some of the information that can be used to fill in the Google form.
There is also an opportunity for the community to participate in a You Tube video contest and an application naming contest. The winning recipient of each will receive a $100 Downtown Blacksburg Gift Certificate. Details of the competition can be found at blacksburg.gov/google.
For additional information contact:
Brenda van Gelder
Director, Strategic Partnership Initiatives
Office of the Vice President for Information Technology
Virginia Tech
bvgelder@vt.edu
540-231-1853
Steve Jones
Director of Technology
Town of Blacksburg
sjones@blacksburg.gov
540-558-0726
While Blacksburg might be pursuing the network, I’ve got to believe that there are benefits to the surrounding areas of the New River Valley, as well. Anyone know, and care to speak on that? Whatever those benefits, you have the opportunity to voice your opinion – I hope you’ll do so. Blacksburg used to be the most wired community in the world – we ought to certainly be pushing for improvement in that area.
Here’s the video that Google put out a few weeks ago concerning their some of their plans for the network ….
Certainly nothing wrong with paying for a service like fiber to the home, I
know several who've said they'd be glad to given the heavy load they put on
their existing home networks. Each works from home, and three of the four
said they routinely experience drops in service.
The ability to build out to surrounding areas is, in my opinion, the most
exciting prospect. Pretty cool stuff, regardless of where the experimental
networks end up.
The City of Galax is part of a regional broadband effort that includes Carroll and Grayson counties. The Galax public works department ran fiber to 60 buildings in downtown Galax last spring–it took just two weeks. And jobs are now coming back to downtown; 25 new medical records processing jobs are in downtown Galax because of the fiber availability. And those workers buy, coffee, lunch, and shop downtown instead of out on the highway.
The City of Galax is part of a regional broadband effort that includes Carroll and Grayson counties. The Galax public works department ran fiber to 60 buildings in downtown Galax last spring–it took just two weeks. And jobs are now coming back to downtown; 25 new medical records processing jobs are in downtown Galax because of the fiber availability. And those workers buy, coffee, lunch, and shop downtown instead of out on the highway.
Mike A. is correct in that we have access to Tier 1 points of presence for national networks including those listed above, but none of those connects the “last mile” to the homes. Google's fiber to the home experiment would bring ultra highspeed broadband right to the doorstep of Blacksburg residents. Granted, residents will have to pay “a competitive price” to get service over the fiber to the home. But simply having this infrastructure in our neighborhoods will increase the property value of homes and it will make it that much less expensive to build out to neighboring towns and communities in the NRV>
I'm in the same boat, although I didn't know about the existing networks.
To me, it seems as if the benefits lie in the increased bandwidth offered
to high-use companies in our area. If their networks can “grow”, so can
their business opportunities?
I'd say Google wants to open up high-speed networks and bring access to average consumers where as existing uses are mainly research/experimental. Seems like it could benefit the area as it would be on Google's dime.
Mike, thanks for the clarification …
So if that's the case, what is the benefit to the Town – and the
region – to have a third? What are your thoughts on that?
Actually, there are several existing high-speed networks:
National LambdaRail (NLR)
Internet2
Multimedia Services Access Point (MSAP)
VORTEX project