Dark Fiber

TMCnet Contributing Editor

From Canandaigua, N.Y., comes the news that a day after Google's (News - Alert) blog entry saying the company was looking to set up an ultra-high speed network, Axcess Ontario is reportedly announcing it wants Ontario County to serve as a Google test site.

 

When we lived in D.C. oh so many years ago, we had a girlfriend from upstate New York, near Syracuse, and we used to know how to pronounce that town name. We've forgotten, but we remember it's not an intuitive pronunciation.

 

Axcess Ontario, the public-benefit corporation overseeing the development of the County's 180-mile, open-access fiber ring, started the official application process on behalf of the county government hopes to complete it early next week.

 

The blog post said Google is seeking trial locations for ultra-fast broadband networks. The company issued a Request for Information to communities nationwide seeking test sites for an experiment 'to make Internet access better, faster and less expensive for everyone,' Axcess officials said, adding that the Google networks 'will deliver Internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today over 1 gigabit per second, fiber-to-the-home connections.'

 

Axcess Ontario President and CEO Ed Hemminger said Ontario County should be at the top of Google's list of potential test sites.

 

 'We've been working on this project for seven years. And with the 180 miles of fiber scheduled for completion by the end of the year, Ontario County is perfectly positioned for Google's experiment,' he said.

 

A rural/suburban community outside Rochester, Ontario County has committed $12 million to its fiber ring project. Approximately 60 miles of the fiber ring are complete and currently being used by service providers such as Verizon (News - Alert) Wireless, tw telecom and Finger Lakes Technology Group.

Last week TMC had the news that Google plans to build a handful of experimental, ultra-fast broadband networks around the country to connect consumers to the Internet. The networks will deliver speeds of 1 gigabit per second, many times faster than the DSL, cable and fiber-optic networks that connect most U.S. homes to the Internet today.

 

The company wants to drive the development of Internet video and other advanced online applications and ensure that tomorrow's networks will have enough bandwidth to keep up with them.