Imagine downloading a high-definition, full-length movie in less than five minutes, or sitting in a rural health clinic where three-dimensional health imaging is streaming over the web to a specialist in New York with whom you're also talking online.
Of all places in America, Blaine County has a chance, albeit small, of getting this technology first.
The county is one of 1,100 city and county governments nationwide that have applied to be the guinea pig for Google's fiber network experiment that would provide Internet speeds a hundred times faster than the norm, at a rate of one gigabit per second.
In February, Google announced plans to build and test these broadband networks in a small number of trial locations across the United States. Some applicants went to extreme lengths for Google's attention, like Topeka, which temporarily renamed itself "Google, Kan." San Francisco argued that as a center of the high-tech community, it was the best choice, while Scranton, Penn., said the fiber cables could jump-start its struggling economy.
Ketchum City Councilwoman Nina Jonas threw Blaine County's hat into the ring, filling out the 20-page application after Ketchum resident Shaun Kelly informed her of the competition. Jonas said she put the entire county as the applicant because the cities are all too small. But the 22,000-population county is still small-scale for Google, which said it's looking for areas with a minimum of 50,000 people.
"It's pretty much a pipe dream," Jonas admitted, noting that the county's chance is zero if it doesn't try.
And, she said, it would be a great economic stimulus for the area that Google would pay to install. But Google wouldn't be able to just come in and start installing fiber cables. Jonas has to provide information on the current infrastructure, such as the number of phone poles and who owns them. She said Idaho Power owns the majority, and Google would need its cooperation.
Google said it would pick the winners sometime this year. While exciting, Google's offering contrasts the goals set by the Federal Communications Commission to bring affordable, 100-megabit speeds to 100 million homes within a decade.
Trevon Milliard: tmilliard@mtexpress.com
Nina Jonas
