Google internet in Alaska??

[SiDz]

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Anchorage is making a pitch to be Google test site for a high-speed broadband network.

What would you do for faster Internet?

Topeka, Kansas will change its name; Duluth, Minn. offered up its firstborns, but Anchorage will work for it.

The high-speed broadband network isn't just faster; it's 100 times faster.

The possibilities are so broad that tech geeks don't even know what to do with it, but they'll figure it out.

"I think the idea was to make it sort of an action sort of a verb; you can Googifi Alaska or Googifi Anchorage, so yeah, that was me," said Kevin Kastner, a Web designer.

For the right incentive, Kastner will work for free.

"The idea was to sort of show a work effort on the part of Anchorage, so that was kind of the theme what would you work to do," he said.

The campaign came together quickly, but that's the pace of the competition for Google's ultra-high speed broadband.

"Once we have access to speeds like that people will come up with incredible ideas," Andy Rogers, of Pango Media, said.

Grassroots Googifies popped up with campaigns across the country trying to get the search giant's attention and to convince the company to come to their town.

But nobody really knows what Google fiber is looking for or how it plans to invest.

"It is the question: What does Anchorage bring to bear that Google might want to see? And as a test bed location we provide an interesting set of challenges," Rogers said.

Some of those challenges: Distance and harsh weather conditions.

"'I will work for bandwidth' is a great angle to come at this from," said the president of the Anchorage Economic Development Corp., Bill Popp.

He says Anchorage already has the infrastructure and the right people to test it.

"There are many families here that communicate with families back in their countries of origin, businesses that are doing business in their countries of origin and that are international in scope. I think that's another opportunity for Google to test out this system," Popp said.

"Right now we are wasting a huge amount of time waiting for content to move around," technical engineer Lance Ahern said.

For those sick of waiting, it could mean no more lag times for gamers, large files downloading in seconds and streaming video without buffering.

But they're still loading the campaign.

"We want people to do things like create their own YouTube videos, and post those online," Ahern said.

Because the more videos and online support there is to Googifi Anchorage, the more likely it will strike a chord with Google and make that dream come true.

Juneau also plans to apply.

Both cities will only share part of their plan for now until things are locked in on the March 26 deadline.

[timOfish]

"Right now we are wasting a huge amount of time waiting for content to move around," technical engineer Lance Ahern said.

"It is the question: What does Anchorage bring to bear that Google might want to see? And as a test bed location we provide an interesting set of challenges," Rogers said.

Well, that sounds beneficial to the end user.