LOCKPORT: County joins in Google pursuit

Local News

March 12, 2010

Niagara area working to woo high-speed network project

By Joyce Miles The Niagara Gazette Fri Mar 12, 2010, 12:15 AM EST

Niagara County is doing a Google search for high-speed economic development.

The county has joined forces with the village and town of Lewiston, the towns of Niagara and Grand Island, and the cities of Niagara Falls and North Tonawanda, to bid for Google’s interest in building a high-speed fiber optic network here.

In early February, Google announced it intends to build the network in a handful of areas. It invited communities nationwide to complete its Request For Information and try selling themselves as the most ready and willing hosts — and customers — of the novel network.

From Duluth, Minn., to Woodlands, Texas, to Gainesville, Fla., to West Hartford, Conn., scores of communities are responding.

The 35-question RFI is extensive; in addition to asking for some obscure data, like how many utility poles are in the applying area, it asks applicants to get into the Web page and YouTube video production business and prove there’s strong community support for a Google project in their neighborhood.

It’s a lot of work in a brief period — the RFI deadline is March 26 — and communities in every region of the nation are throwing themselves into it. The potential payoff is too sweet not to.

For the community it picks, Google will build the infrastructure that supports ultra high speed Internet connections — think roughly 100 times faster than DSL, cable and existing fiber optics networks — and in doing so could make that community a go-to place for cutting-edge enterprisers. Google reportedly has said its technology would allow users to stream three-dimensional images online, or download a feature-length film in five minutes.

“Wherever it goes, it means high-tech jobs. People will want to go there for those jobs,” said Larry Helwig, director of data processing for Niagara County. “It won’t create another Silicon Valley, but it’ll be a huge economic boost to whoever gets it, because there’s nothing like it anywhere in the country. ... This is big time.”

The Legislature is set to formally approve Niagara County’s involvement in the Google RFI when it meets next week. Work on the RFI has been on ongoing among the municipal partners for a couple weeks already, according to Helwig.

A Facebook account and Web site will be launched shortly, Helwig said. Residents will be invited to add testimonials suggesting why a Google network should be laid in Niagara.

The proposed network area takes Grand Island in Erie County and, on Niagara’s western/southwestern edge, Lewiston, Niagara, Niagara Falls, North Tonawanda and western portions of Wheatfield and Cambria, where Niagara County Community College is located.

Initially, greater Lockport was drawn in too, but it’s been dropped because connecting it with the larger area was too much of a stretch, according to Helwig. The western-end municipalities are served by National Grid, while Lockport is served by NYSE&G; and “when we go (down) Route 31, we’d cross an area that’s not too densely populated,” he said. Either of those things might count against Niagara in Google’s view.

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