Austin, as a tech hub and an Internet-savvy community, would be a fantastic test bed for this FTTH experiment. Austinites are highly connected and sophisticated Internet users and would perfect beta testers for super high-speed service. Also, with the city’s two major Internet Access Providers (AT&T and Time Warner Cable) experimenting with usage caps and metered service, the city may soon need just such an uncapped high-speed alternative service.
Google is asking for community nominations from individual users, community groups, and local governments. The company will be accepting nominations until March 26, 2010. We urge Austinites to let Google know that they think Austin would be a perfect test site and to send in their nominations for Austin early and often.
Matthew Henry is an EFFA board member and a partner at McCollough|Henry, PC
The Google Fiber for Communities nomination form has a field for “Web link to supporting material”, can anyone recommend a site that supports the argument for Austin?
@Kevin
I’m not sure what you’re looking for, but there’s some good info at http://www.austinbroadband.info. I don’t know of a website devoted just to bringing Google’s FTTH experiment to Austin, though. Hopefully that’s something that the city can put together.
There is a Facebook group that is quickly growing “Big Gig Austin – Build the Google Gigabit Fiber Network in Austin”
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=337158056344&ref=mf
This is a group that is building a network of members to show Google Austins support for this project. Other cities are doing this – and memberships have reached 6,000 or more.
@Kevin
BigGig Austin has some information: http://www.biggigaustin.org/
Nominate Austin