Google broadband in the works

Google announced on the Official Google Blog today that Google Inc. is planning to build its own broadband network and offer service at competitive prices to selected areas across the country. I’ll tell you right now, if Google broadband is offered in my city, and it costs the same as what I’m using now, I will definitely sign up.
Google broadband will be “more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today,” says the Google blog. The fiber optic network will run at one gigabit per second. Wow, that will give a whole new meaning to “instant approval” for online payday loans. The plan is to build and test Google broadband by offering the service to 50,000 people, and eventually up to 500,000 people. My only question is, why stop there?
Google, broadband and beyond
Apparently Google plans to offer Google broadband to businesses as well as residences. The Google blog starts out:
Imagine sitting in a rural health clinic, streaming three-dimensional medical imaging over the web and discussing a unique condition with a specialist in New York.
The company also says Google broadband will be capable of downloading high definition movies in five minutes. Building Google broadband should be pretty easy for Google, considering it already has built its own fiber optic network “to connect its data centers, speed up search, and lower its cost of streaming billions of videos a month on YouTube,” according to TechCrunch.
How to get Google broadband
At this stage of the process, Google is waiting to hear from local governments and members of the public regarding interest in Google broadband. Google says all responses must be submitted through the Google Fiber for Communities web site before March 26.
It’s pretty easy; you just click the big, blue “get involved” button, then select the proper form, based on whether you’re a local government official or a community resident. The form asks questions about whether you represent an organization, why you think you should get Google broadband in your area and a few multiple choice questions about what’s currently available in your area.