Google’s Fiber for Communities Project

- News Release - 03.05.10 - City Survey Results - 03.22.10

City Additional Information for Google A Special Edition of Currently Kirkland TV program featuring voices from Kirkland and how it would change the lives of Kirkland residents and business. Part 1 Part 2 Chamber of Commerce Executive Director encourages city to compete Letters of support Northwest University (PDF - 279k) Lake Washington Technical College (PDF - 331k) INRIX (PDF - 56k) SRM Development - (PDF - 33k) Puget Sound Energy (PDF - 158k) Google Informational video about Google's project & nomination Fiber for communities overview and Q&A

Brenda Cooper Chief Information Office  Information Technology Dept.  City of Kirkland Email: googlerfi@ci.kirkland.wa.us   425-587-3051

Google plans to test ultra-high speed broadband networks in one or more locations in the United States. Google’s ultra-high speed broadband network will provide Internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most users have today. Kirkland submitted a “Request for Information” (RFI) as its bid to be considered as a host development site. Google will announce its selection(s) by the end of this year.

We’d like to thank all of the Kirkland residents and businesses who expressed their support, questions, and thoughts about our bid to be considered for this project.

• City Survey: Thank you to all those who responded to the survey. Your feedback will be integrated into the City’s proposal document.
  Summary of results (pdf - 82k)
  Verbatim results (pdf - 74k)
  
• Google Nomination: We’d like to thank all of the Kirkland residents who nominated Kirkland right on the Google site.

Google has indicated they hope to choose a community or set of communities for this project by the end of the year. We will post new information here as it becomes available. 

Why Google Should Want Kirkland

• We are a highly-educated, high-tech, innovative and collaborative community 
• We are a highly connected community  
• We currently provide municipal fiber to the hospital and schools
• We are an active member of E-CityGov, a consortium of cities committed to providing electronic government services
• We have several gaming and technology companies of various sizes
• We are the proud location of Google’s Campus in the Everest neighborhood

See what Kirkland residents and businesses have to say (pdf - 74k) about the City’s interest in Google’s pilot project.

Why Kirkland Wants Google 
Even though Kirkland has two excellent providers in their own right (Comcast and Verizon), there is a key difference in this proposal. Google is promising to build an open network. That means that many businesses could provide services on that network, which should increase choice and keep cost down. This is a primary reason the City is so enthusiastic about this opportunity.