Institute part of Get Google task force
“I want a gig in Huntsville,” announced Dr. O’Neal Smitherman, executive vice president of the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology and member of Huntsville’s Get Google task force. Smitherman spoke at a press conference hosted by Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle on Monday, March 15.
Google is planning to build and test ultra-high speed broadband networks in a small number of trial locations across the country. The networks will deliver Internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today, with one gigabit per second, fiber-to-the-home connections. Huntsville, Alabama is vying for the opportunity to be part of the Google trials.
“Huntsville is a unique community; it has all of the requisite ingredients the UN says is essential to build a technology-based economy,” noted Smitherman. He emphasized the area’s well educated workforce and strength in information technologies. “Our usage of computational and digital communications surpasses rates of most cities around the country.”
He added that the Huntsville community has the concentrated expertise to develop the techniques to fully utilize the broadband infrastructure proposed by Google. Notably, HudsonAlpha is already a major producer of large amounts of content with global reach.
“The fields of genetics and genomics demand dynamic sharing and consuming of large data sets. As our knowledge in these areas grows, the need for very high speed communications grows exponentially,” explained Smitherman. The executive vice president added that the provision of gigabit and higher broadband access to individual homes enables the kind of creative innovation characteristic of America’s Internet pioneers.
“This type of infrastructure will allow the U.S. to regain its prominence in the use of the Internet and the development of innovative content. With the tremendous synergy between public and private sectors, there is no place better than Huntsville for it to all come together,” finished Smitherman.
How you can help Huntsville’s bid for Google Fiber:
- Read more about the Huntsville’s campaign for Google Fiber here on al.com.
- Visit here, then click "nominate your community" to nominate Huntsville as a Google Fiber candidate.
- Become a fan of Google4Hsv on Facebook and suggest the page to your friends.