Here’s a press release we’ll be sending out about our intent to explore Google’s offer to bring gigabyte speed broadband to an entire community.  There are many unanswered questions and any application may be a long shot, but it would be a game-changer for Duluth.  I think it’s worth putting our best foot forward and see what happens…  If you want to help out, check the bottom of the post.  See you around…  Don

Mayor Don Ness has indicated the City of Duluth‘s intent to pursue a partnership with Google to bring fiber-to-home connections to city residents.  Google plans to select a community to test ultra-high speed connections at more than a gigabit per second later this year through a competitive process.

The following is a statement from Mayor Ness on the city’s intent:

We want Duluth, Minnesota to be at the forefront of a new gigaband revolution in America.  For America to be competitive into the future, we need to be aggressive at investing in our data infrastructure.  To unfairly paraphrase Tip O’Neill “All bandwidth use is local” – Google’s community initiative will be a powerful tool to demonstrate the positive impact of local broadband improvements.

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