My nomination of Austin for Google's 1GB to the Home project:
Situated in the beautiful heart of Texas, Austin is one of the greatest creative and startup environment in the US. We have bands uploading videos and music, digital movie distribution, and the Silicon Hills full of gaming companies and IT startups. The annual SXSW film, interactive media and music conference bring thousands of creative people into town every spring.Submit your city here.
Austin is the hub for Smart metering and Green Power initiatives. AustinEnergy, our municipal owned power provider, is a leader in progressive power delivery. Texas is the largest generator of Wind Power in the US due to AustinEnergy's GreenChoice program. The city and the utility have partnered to form the Pecan Street project, which funds and provides technical assistance to Green Power and Green transportation startups.
This creates an unquenchable thirst for connectivity. Yet Austin is trapped in the Bermuda triangle of bandwidth. Surrounded by the large cities of Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio much connectivity and access bypasses Austin, going for the large datacenter havens in those cities. Choices for broadband providers are limited to the cable monopoly, and the phone monopoly. Both provide moderate download, but significantly restricted upload speeds. Neither provider offers a fiber to the home product, and neither is investing funds to upgrade their last mile connectivity.
The City of Austin's own efforts to create a alternative municipal network for universal access were stalled when the providers lobbied for a state law prohibiting municipalities from competing in the broadband space.
Austin's residents are leaders in technology and the arts. Our city is well positioned to develop and use, and contribute to Google's Fiber for Communities project, and we look forward to working with Google on the future of the Internet.
