The City of Richmond has joined a growing list of municipalities hoping tech giant Google picks it for a new a high-speed broadband experiment that could increase Internet surf times by 100.

“The city that wins this project will be recognized globally and the impact it will have is the technological equivalent of being awarded the Olympics,” said Mayor Dwight Jones in a press release.

According to a website established to drum up local interest in the contest, Richmond is a perfect test market. And the local web/marketing community volunteered to build a website and activate social media outlets.

“We’re a small-sized big city with a diversity in population and geography that statistically mirrors the United States as a whole,” the website says.

More than 80 other municipalities have already applied including Charlottesville, Virginia Beach, James City County and Williamsburg / York Counties. And a handful are resorting to extreme gimmicks to bring home the victory. The city of Topeka, Kan, renamed itself Google for the month of March. Meanwhile the mayor of Duluth, Minn jumped into Lake Superior.

Richmond won’t cheapen itself that much, said Andreas Addison, a budget analyst for the city who is helping spearhead the project. But there will be a 3-minute video coming out next week.

“We want to be considered a serious contender,” Addison said, adding that the increased bandwidth could be helpful for the healthcare and educational institutions.

“We do not want to poke fun. We want to show how Richmond doesn’t need to do that, and Google should want to pick Richmond.”

The deadline for applications is March 26. But so far, details of exactly what Google will provide and what it will cost is unclear. According to a Wall Street Journal story from earlier this week, there are more questions than answers.

According to the story at least one city – San Francisco – said the cost of building the network would be prohibitive, about $1,500 per home or more than $200 million for a city with 500,000.

In a separate MarketWatch column, one analyst said that the contest could become a bidding war akin to what states do with tax incentives. “If you get a bidding war going, you might find out that the winning city ends up paying more of this than they expected.”

It’s also unclear how much faster internet service might benefit an area.

Addison said that while Google has not shared any specific details, he believes that the city would potentially make some money if Google paid for conduits and equipment under the ground as well as the use of telephone poles like Comcast and Verizon have to do.

Aaron Kremer is the BizSense editor. Please send news tips to Editor@richmondbizsense.com.

Original article appeared here.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Scott Pharr, Owner, PharrOut

 Wednesday, March 17, 2010

City to Apply for Google Fiber for Communities Project

Mayor Dwight C. Jones announced today the city of Richmond’s intent to apply for the Google Fiber for Communities Project on March 26 and urges all of the Richmond community and region to support the city’s efforts.

“The city that wins this project will be recognized globally and the impact it will have is the technological equivalent of being awarded the Olympics,” said Mayor Jones. “It will be an enormous economic development engine and further expand the creative and technological industries in our city, in addition to helping bridge the digital divide. This would be a major stride in making Richmond a Tier One city.”

The Google Fiber for Communities Project is an experiment to build an ultra-high speed broadband network that will deliver internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today. The planned network will offer speeds over one gigabit per second in the fiber-to-the-home connections. Google plans to offer service at a competitive price and an open network.

The city is responding to Google’s Request for Information (RFI) and asking for community support from the business, educational, and creative community.

“One of the deciding factors in Google’s decision will be community support and it is imperative that we enlist everyone we can to join our application effort. Residents can join us on our social media sites and show Google that Richmond is the city that will embrace their project and help make it a success,” said Mayor Jones.

Community support can be registered on the following social media sites:

1GbforRVA Campaign
Become a Fan on Facebook -

Follow on Twitter
City of Richmond Page

There is no application fee for submitting Google’s RFI and the network will be built by Google. The city’s role, if selected, will be to help facilitate the installation of the network through existing city departments and infrastructure.

The creative community is teaming up to support the city’s application and needs you to join and register your support to show Google that if they build it, RVA will come. Community engagement and support for the project will be a determining factor in Google’s decision, so we need you to help out!

First, take a few moments to nominate Richmond via Google’s form and then become a Fan on our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter (and use the hashtag #gigarva). You can also upload your own video to our YouTube Channel telling Google why Richmond is the place for them to build their network.

Don’t wait to support RVA! The application is due on March 26 (next Friday) and we need to show our support and spread the word to friends, family, students, alumni, and anyone else who thinks RVA is the place for 1Gb per second.

• Aides in attracting and retaining businesses
• Broadband is an accelerator of economic and social development.
• Increase opportunities to learn outside of the classroom
• Ability to provide additional access to government services
• Broadband enables government to provide more services to citizens, such as business registration, filing taxes and getting information on local laws.
• Increases both access to, and quality of, health care
• Equip First Responders with necessary information

Residents Benefit from Fast Home Connections

• More convenience to accomplish everyday tasks
• Offers a wealth of entertainment for most ages
• Allows for additional opportunities to search for employment
• Provides additional means to communicate with friends and family
• Learning from home at all levels is possible

Business Benefits

• Allows business to reach a Global Market Place
• Offers more options to compare prices and shop for supplies and purchasing on-line
• Save time by purchasing supplies on-line
• Ability to push out advertisements, news, sales to a wide audience
• Helps to recruit job seekers to Richmond
• Increased productivity and efficiency allows gains to be passed along to consumers

Potential Impact on the Following Industries Important in Richmond

• Smart Power Grids – installing two-way “smart meters” with wireless Internet will allow households to get detailed home energy usage from the web, with expected energy consumption savings, adjustment of appliances to reduce electricity consumption during peak times, and prevention or rapid repair of outages along the distribution grid.
• Workplace Flexibility – easy access to employer and public information should enable more work to be done at home, potentially benefitting both workers at established employers and at-home entrepreneurs.
• Health Care Information – moving from paper files to electronic records should make it easier to communicate about health status and both past and potential future treatments, and to hold down treatment and administrative costs, which in turn should offer gains for patients and for health-care providers
• Web 2.0 Tools For Civic Engagement – broadband will facilitate even better information dissemination to citizens and enhance connections to both on-line and off-line governmental action and activity.