Google plan sparks area interest

Plans by Google to test an ultra-fast Internet connection to a limited number of trial locations across the United States has sparked a push by a Topeka group to gain the company’s interest in the capital city.

“Our goal is to get 20,000 people in two weeks,” said Jared Starkey, a Topeka software developer and one of the people behind Think Big Topeka.

The group boasts more than 3,000 Facebook members and is growing at hundreds per day. Their goal: To gather enough community and local government support to bring Google’s fiber network experiment to Topeka.

“It’s so cool to me that I know people are getting excited about this,” Starkey said. “I know that any place in the country, getting people to actually do anything is like pulling teeth. There are more than 2,400 people in our group right now, and there are 50 to 100 people actively going out and telling people about this.”

On Feb. 10, Google announced it was planning to build and test new high-speed broadband networks in select locations across the country. The network would run on a system of fiber optic cables and deliver speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today.

“We plan to provide fiber to the home service with speeds of up to one gigabyte per second and at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people,” said Google product manager James Kelly. “We’re doing this because we want to experiment with new ways to make the web better and faster for everyone, allowing applications that would be impossible today.”

Among the possibilities suggested are streaming three-dimensional medical imaging over the Internet, or downloading a high-definition or full-length feature film in less than five minutes.

Think Big Topeka, which started Feb. 11 with about three people, say bringing the network to Topeka would attract business, improve quality of life, and boost health care systems, schools and government agencies.

“This type of technology has the power to put Topeka on the global map,” Starkey said.

And, the group believes the network could be installed at nearly no cost to the city of Topeka.

Google, which is taking requests for information from municipalities and community members until March 26, said the experiment would allow developers to create new bandwith-intensive services or other uses “we can’t yet imagine.”

“We also want to try out new ways to build and operate fiber networks and share what we learn with the world,” Kelly said. “Finally, we’re going to operate Open Access Networks, meaning we’ll share our network with other service providers, giving users more choices.”

In an effort to gain spread the word in Topeka, the group started a Web site at

http://thinkbigtopeka.com, a Facebook group and Twitter account. Additionally, the group is planning to “flash mob” the Heartland Visioning community meeting at 4:30 p.m. Thursday at the Ramada Hotel and Convention Center, 420 S.E. 6th.

Starkey says a flash mob is a public declaration of support where people show up at a location at a given time, silently remove their jacket or sweatshirt and display a T-shirt promoting their cause.

Those interested in joining the group may contact thinkbigtopeka@gmail.com to reserve a free T-shirt. More information about Google’s fiber experiment can be found at www.google.com/appserve/fiberrfi.

Kevin Elliott can be reached at (785) 295-1192 or kevin.elliott@cjonline.com.

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