Make your pitch for Google to test ultra-high speed broadband here

February 10th, 2010 · 6 Comments

Christo suggests we post something about Google’s call for nominations for a place to test ultra-high speed broadband service. How fast? They’re talking more than 1 gigabit per second. That’s about 100 times faster than most people get now, according to Google.

There’s a way for people in communities such as ours to nominate the area for the test. The tweets are flying today about people either suggesting who should apply, or who they’ve nominated. Ballard and Beacon Hill are reportedly among those nominated so far.

Anyone interested in seeing the service tested here in Greenwood-Phinney? You can get more information and post your nomination here.

Tags: Uncategorized

6 responses so far ↓

1 eas // Feb 10, 2010 at 11:05 pm

Well, I’m doing my part.

Any word from Qwest on when there FTTN service is finally going to reach us and give Comcast some competition.
2 Jon // Feb 11, 2010 at 3:14 am

I did my part. Though, I requested that it be rolled out in ‘Seattle’, rather than specifying a neighborhood.

I welcome any real competition in this Comcast-dominated monopoly.

Perhaps Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson should throw Seattle’s name in the hat?
3 Footloose // Feb 11, 2010 at 3:40 pm

Thank You Thank You Thank You for posting this. I requested North Seattle. I hate Comcast for many reasons and now have Qwest which is sooooo slloooooow compared to my previous Comcast connection. Living by ideals can be inconvenient but… HEELLLOOOOO Google!
4 amigaboy // Feb 11, 2010 at 5:48 pm

Can’t say I support this, given Google is about ready to sign up the NSA to help them with their security – they already have considerable privacy issues as it is.

I have moved to using Bing or Ask.com, and I suggest you do, too.

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/02/google-seeks-nsa-help/
http://osdir.com/Article10371.phtml
5 Jon // Feb 12, 2010 at 2:55 pm

@amigaboy: While your concerns are valid, think of it this way…

All ISP monopolies in our territory are against Net Neutrality. On top of this unfavorable policy, they keep prices high and are often not willing to work towards correcting problems with their lines. At least competition from Google would change things up a bit.
6 amigaboy // Feb 13, 2010 at 2:53 pm

While I’m all for competition, and i agree that in nearly all cases it’s a good thing, that wasn’t really my point. Privacy was my point, and Google doesn’t respect it.

When an open-source Mozilla person is advocating using a Microsoft search engine over Google (second link), you know there are serious issues at hand.

Certainly Seattle can pursue this and people aren’t going to be forced to use it – but Qwest was the only phone company to say ‘no’ the feds spying during the Bush years, and that’s good enough for me. If privacy isn’t a concern, it’s a (hopefully still) free country and no worries.