Google is delaying its decision about which community it will choose to pilot its high speed Google Fiber. Duluth, Minnesota, is considered a strong candidate among the thousands of communities that applied. An MPR report explores Duluth’s chances. Google said it will announce its decision in early 2011.
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Duluth is a strong candidate? It costs considerably more to build a fiber network on the side of a hill than it does on flat land. As much as I’d love to see it, it’s just not in the cards.
You might be right. Buried in the report is the fact that the only town Google’s actually talked to is in Utah. I do think Duluth fits the profile of a great mid-sized regional hub to experiment with, but if Step 1 is just getting the technology to work they may not want the ice and hills.