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March 30, 2010 Portlandbiz

Could Portland be a Google city?

By Robert M. Cook

The city of Portland entered the Google sweepstakes last week and hopes to be one of two U.S. communities chosen to run Google's fiber-optic cables to every dwelling with Internet speeds 100 times faster than broadband.

City officials submitted their application before the Friday deadline, making Portland one of 100 applicants nationwide vying to be Google's test site for the company's fiber initiative. Google is searching for cities with populations of 50,000 to 500,000.

"Portland is an excellent pilot project site from a couple of perspectives," says Greg Mitchell, director of the city's economic development division.

With 60,000 people, Portland is small and yet has all the ingredients of a major metropolitan area. It may also be appealing because it is located in the Northeast, he says.

"We're in the middle of everything, but we're at the end of the line," Mitchell says.

Some of Portland's competitors include cities like Duluth, Minn., Wilmington, Del., and Topeka, Kan., which city officials renamed "Google" for the month of March.

Mitchell says Portland officials decided they wanted to stay away from those kinds of gimmicks in favor of a strong letter of interest designed to get the city to the next step.

"We're going to stand on our own merits," Mitchell says.

Mitchell says the city council gave the Google application its blessing. "It's been overwhelmingly positive," says Mitchell.

If Google chooses Portland as one of its test pilot sites, Mitchell says Google officials indicated they would reach out to Maine companies to help them set up the infrastructure for the new technology. The state's goal to improve its overall connectivity to the world would also receive a boost, he says.

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