Google Fiber belongs in Oak Ridge

Chattanooga got fiber to the home as a side benefit of the smart-grid system for the Electric Power Board (EPB). Now they are benefiting from ORNL and DOE support on the smart grid. Too bad that Oak Ridge is behind on implementing smart grid, or we might be seeing these benefits here.

DOE, EPB, ORNL Begin New Partnership | Business Wire The US Department of Energy, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and EPB announce the beginning of a partnership that will use Chattanooga’s smart gri

Where did we go wrong? Nashville is on this list...

Google to Bring Super High-Speed Internet Service to 34 Cities As the company rolls out Google Fiber, it looks to 34 more communities as the next potential candidates.

Let's help Oak Ridge win a PetSafe grant to help build a dog park at Big Turtle Park. We didn't win the Google Fiber competition for our electronic devices, but we can win this for our city's dogs.

Vote For Oak Ridge, TN Log in / Create account PetSafe.net About Us Contest Rules FAQs Tips & Tools Contest Overview

In related news, we learned recently that low-cost ($9.99/month or so) broadband will be made available low-income households with children in areas served by Comcast broadband. It's not here yet, but it was apparently a requirement for federal approval of a big merger.

Hmm... Chattanooga is a "smart city" due in part to its high-speed internet service. These surveys generally look at metro areas, so Oak Ridge is only on the radar as part of Knoxville, but don't we deserve the "smart city" label?

City touts 'smart city' tag | Chattanooga Times Free Press Chattanooga is aiming for the crown of the world's so-called

We're at 906 folks who like Google Fiber belongs in Oak Ridge. How about helping is reach 1000 by Valentine's Day. Pass the word to your FB friends.

Still no announcement from Google, for those of you who have been wondering. This most recent Google blog post on the subject was by Milo Medin, announcing that he joined Google in December as vice president of Access Services to oversee the Google Fiber team.

Official Google Blog: An update on Google Fiber

NYC is atypical -- it's well connected to high-quality fiber. Google needs to do its fiber-to-the-home demonstration in a more typical place like Oak Ridge where there are real challenges to fiber deployment, but many potential benefits.

» Google Buys Giant New York Building for $1.8 Billion The web search titan just dropped $1.8 billion to acquire one of the largest and most historic buildings in all of the Big Apple. At nearly 3 million square feet, 111 Eighth Avenue, the former Port Authority building, sits like beached, red-brick cruise ship overlooking New York...

Oak Ridge also should be "encouraged" by the delay in Google's announcement -- we're still in the running, and our proposal features unique opportunities to tie the community to ORNL's top-class computing resources.

KCMO Encouraged by Latest Google Fiber Announcement - Kansas City infoZine News Kansas City Was One of 1,100 Communities to Apply Last February to be a Test Location for This New Innovation.

According to the blogosphere, Google won't announce winners until some time in 2011. In the meantime, keep telling your friends to "like" this page!

Google Fiber's 1Gbps ISP 'test community' selection delayed until 2011 -- Engadget As you can imagine, the call for a community to be the recipient of Google Fiber's 1Gbps network was met by an overwhelming response. Indeed,

Oak Ridge submitted an excellent application to the Google Fiber Project, but other cities seem to be ahead of us in the social media race. Are your Facebook friends "fans" of this page?

Google Fiber - Who's Winning the Online Race?

Today we're at #29 again. Have you asked your Facebook friends to "like" this page? If you're not a fan of this page yet, at like button will appear at the right-hand side of the page title -- press it to add yourself to Oak Ridge's fan count -- and our ranking.

Google Fiber - Who's Winning the Online Race?