See? The County of Albemarle and City of Charlottesville can work together! At least they’re trying.

– Please, Google, Bring Fiber to Charlottesville!

– Petition to bring Google Fiber to Charlottesville

– City, County and UVA Considering application for ultrafast Google Fiber

But … did you know that Blue Ridge InternetWorks already has laid a bunch of fiber around the City of Charlottesville?

From an Albemarle County press release:

We want Google Fiber in central Virginia!!

Albemarle County, Charlottesville and the University of Virginia are putting in a joint application to bring Google Fiber for Communities to central Virginia, and we are looking for help from the community.

A little background – Google is planning to launch an experiment that they hope will make Internet access better and faster for everyone. They plan to test ultra-high speed broadband networks in one or more trial locations across the country. These networks will deliver Internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today, over 1 gigabit per second, fiber-to-the-home connections. Google says they will offer service at a competitive price to at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people.  Google’s goal is to experiment with new ways to help make Internet access better, and faster for everyone. Google plans to pay for the installation of the fiber network with no infrastructure costs to the community.

How will this help our regional community??

According to Google, “ In the same way that the transition from dial-up to broadband made possible the emergence of online video and countless other applications, ultra high-speed bandwidth will drive more innovation – in high-definition video, remote data storage, real-time multimedia collaboration, and others that we cannot yet imagine. It will enable new consumer applications, as well as medical, educational, and other services that can benefit communities. If the Internet has taught us anything, it’s that the most important innovations are often those we least expect.”

As a first step, Google is putting out a Request for Information (RFI) to help identify interested communities. They welcome responses from local government, as well as members of the public.

How can you help make this happen??
Officials from the City, County and University are hoping for an enthusiastic response from the public to help build the case to bring Google Fiber to our community. There are two ways to get involved:  

• First, Albemarle County, Charlottesville and the University of Virginia are jointly submitting a request to Google to be considered for this trial – you can help by filling in this brief survey to provide info that will be helpful in our submittal.http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dHdMd2hVVUwtbTQyNFVyYTFQaFFTcVE6MA
• Second, Google is accepting nominations from residents and community groups saying why Google Fiber should come to their area – visit the following link and make your best case for why we should be the selected region, Google has said that community support will be important in making their choice.
  http://www.google.com/appserve/fiberrfi/public/options
• Links to both of these items are posted on the county and city websites, http://www.albemarle.org/googlefiber and www.charlottesville.org

We need to submit our request by March 26, so we need survey responses and community nominations to be submitted by March 22. Even if our community is not selected, this effort will gather important information for future broadband possibilities. Please fill in a survey and nominate our community today!

(when they’re asking for something for free)