Bryan Chan says people keep asking him the same question: Does he worry that Google Fiber might hurt his business if Madison is picked for the company's pilot project?
His answer is a resounding "No." "There's tremendous promotional value if we get this," says Chan, who owns SupraNet Communications Inc., a high-speed Internet provider and web hoster. "It would put Madison on the map."
Google is looking to pick a U.S. city to be the first to host its high-speed Internet connection, with 1-gigabit-per-second processing. The project has inspired all manner of promotional stunts around the country as cities vie to be chosen. The application deadline is March 26. (See here for a report by Nick Penzenstadler.)
After a public hearing to drum up local support for the effort, Paul Ranola, co-owner of Requisite Video Productions, filmed a few business owners on why Google should pick Madison. He'll send the company the edited footage.
"It's going to be amazing stuff," Ranola says. "They're talking about 100 times faster than we've seen before. They're going to be trying to figure out what they can do with it. We're talking about extraordinary opportunities for development."
Ranola's company produces video for websites. "We promote and try to convince businesses they should use video on their website," he says. "Video needs a lot of bandwidth."
Chan thinks Madison is an ideal community for the project because there will be a learning curve in applying the new technology, and people here will be adept at handling it.
"The problem is no one has actually ever done this before, so there are a lot of technical questions that no one has answered yet," he says. "What Madison offers is a lot of expertise."
