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Online Survey To Support Google Fiber Effort

Contact: Peter K. Cutler
              851-4841 

MAYOR ANNOUNCES ONLINE SURVEY TO SUPPORT GOOGLE FIBER EFFORT
Posts Citizen Survey on City Website to Support City’s Formal Response to the Google Fiber for Communities Project

Mayor Byron W. Brown today announced that the City of Buffalo has posted a “citizen survey” as part of its effort to secure consideration as a location for Google Inc.’s universal ultra high-speed internet access system, known as the Google Fiber for Communities Project.

Google is set to launch an experiment to test ultra-high speed broadband networks in one or more trial locations across the country. The experimental Google Fiber network will deliver Internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today. Google plans to offer service at a competitive price to at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people. The branding and economic development benefit to the host communities for this initiative will be considerable.

“The city views this project as an opportunity to provide significant economic development benefits to the City and to help bridge the digital divide that exists in some sections of the city,” said Mayor Brown.  “Generally, this opportunity is a chance to increase and improve access to technology and information that will have broad and positive impact on the entire city. Think of this as another opportunity to demonstrate Buffalo’s ability to lead the way in cutting-edge technology, just the way the City fostered so many new technologies at the turn of the 20th Century. I urge our city’s residents to go online and complete this survey, which will help support our overall pitch to Google Inc.” 
Buffalo already has some significant advantages for this competition.  The city has a strong fiber optic cable network, so it will make the case to Google that Buffalo is the right city to test this new system.  And with its strong foundation of colleges and universities, along with such developments as the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, the city will promote Buffalo as the perfect location to establish this new technology. 
Anyone wishing to participate in this survey can simply go to the city’s website http://www.city-buffalo.com and click on the Google Fiber for Communities icon on the right hand side of homepage.