All eyes on Google’s upcoming decision on where (Asheville?) it will build high-speed Internet

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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From the Greensboro News & Record:

High-tech boosters from Duluth to Greensboro are excited this fall, hoping that Google will soon choose a city where it will build a high-speed Internet system.

If they’re wrong, it won’t be for lack of hints from Google.

The company said in late October that it has chosen Stanford University as a test site for the network, which promises to transmit 1 gigabit per second of data through big fiber optic cables. That lets Internet users transmit and receive data up to 100 times faster than they’re able to now.

The main event remains Google’s selection of a city that could serve from 50,000 to 500,000 customers.

“We still plan to announce our selected community or communities by the end of the year,” James Kelly, the product manager for Google Fiber, wrote on Google’s official blog.

And Greensboro’s Jay Ovittore, the community activist who worked with Greensboro city government to help coordinate its application for the Google program, said Google could winnow its list of 1,100 applicants down to 30 and start city visits by December.