Do You Feel The Need For Speed?  Are You Ready To Go For More Fiber? 

Jersey City, like dozens, if not hundreds, of other municipalities across the nation, from Baltimore, Maryland, to Norfolk, Nebraska,  has decided to apply for the opportunity to become a test city for Google’s ambitious “Fiber to Communities” project.  And while we won’t go as far as Topeka, which renamed itself “Google, Kansas” for a month, we believe that Jersey City has a great shot, given our geographic area and diversity.

What’s It All About?
Google plans “to build and test ultra high-speed broadband networks in a small number of trial locations across the United States. We'll deliver Internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today with 1 gigabit per second, fiber-to-the-home connections. We plan to offer service at a competitive price to at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people.”

To find out more, watch:

What Is The City Doing?
Google has provided a government questionnaire which covers things like population, area, terrain, access to utility poles, and even annual rainfall.  Various departments/divisions are working on the answers to those questions, which will enable Google to make a sound economic and logistical decision.

On March 24, 2010, the City Council unanimously passed Resolution 10-180 in support of our application.  Read the resolution.

Mayor Healy has shown his support as well. Read the Mayor's letter.

What Can You Do To Help?
Google has also provided a community nomination form for the public to fill out.  You will have to create a Google account (which only takes a few minutes) then click on Nominate Your Community.

What Do You Need To Do?
The Google questionnaire is aimed at assessing customer satisfaction with existing internet service, which is understandably one of the parameters they’re interested in.  However, to win we need to show Google that there is community interest from every Ward and neighborhood in Jersey City.  To accomplish that, we need you to fill out our own 2 minute, 9 question survey. When the information is tallied, we’ll be able to provide a GIS (Geographic Information Systems) file showing Google exactly where interest in high speed internet service is located. Take the survey here.

Who Else Is Working On This?
Jersey City residents, of course! Just like other communities across the nation, JC residents have created their own page. Take a moment to check out the grassroot's organization's very cool  High Speed Jersey City and tell why you think our town is the only town that can handle the speed and the fiber!

Is It Worth It?
Definitely. On March 16, 2010, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) delivered to Congress  “a National Broadband Plan setting an ambitious agenda for connecting all corners of the nation while transforming the economy and society with the communications network of the future – “.  You can find the complete plan here, but the plan’s call for action over the next decade includes the following goals and recommendations:

• Connect 100 million households to affordable 100-megabits-per-second service, building the world's largest market of high-speed broadband users and ensuring that new jobs and businesses are created in America.

• Affordable access in every American community to ultra-high-speed broadband of at least 1 gigabit per second at anchor institutions such as schools, hospitals, and military installations

• Move our adoption rates from roughly 65 percent to more than 90 percent and make sure that every child in America is digitally literate by the time he or she leaves high school.

• Bring affordable broadband to rural communities, schools, libraries, and vulnerable populations by transitioning existing Universal Service Fund support from yesterday’s analog technologies to tomorrow’s digital infrastructure.

• Promote competition across the broadband ecosystem by ensuring greater transparency, removing barriers to entry, and conducting market-based analysis with quality data on price, speed, and availability.

• Enhance the safety of the American people by providing every first responder with access to a nationwide, wireless, interoperable public safety network

The bottom line is that faster internet is coming, either by Federal policy and (perhaps) funding or private initiative. The Google Fiber to Communities project can get Jersey City out in front.

When is the deadline?
Google has set March 26, 2010 as the deadline for applications.  Our survey will stay up to collect data going forward.

C'mon Jersey City, let's show 'em what we're made of! Let's Go For Google!

What would you do with blazing fast web access?
Well, Jersey City, you did not disappoint.  Below are some of your responses to our survey, and they certainly show the innovative, entrepreneurial, and creative spirit of our city.  Thanks!

Work from home. Use my car less. Save the planet.

Doing more real time community organizing on the web

Be able to access website faster for personal finance mgmt, watch videos, download files, etc.

The speed would help see my family in a different country.

I would interact via video conferencing with other community activists as well as request meetings with government officials.

Download movies and watch streaming video

Exactly....The sky's the limit.

Cut my research time in half

Look up more data quickly - gps and geocode data

Please give the City of Jersey City a chance to have the fast web access to better our way of doing business.  Please give us a chance and we will not let you down.  Thank you.

Search the web like a rocket.

I want the whole wide world to be able to visit our Fine Arts Page

Be able to get information faster.

Build the next hulu

I want to send my lolcats to every computer in America.

I love to learn everything about everything. If I can get it faster, I'm all for it!!!!!!!

Download technical papers for wireless and web 2.0 applications

Open market to the arts

Digitize the Jersey City library system so all our residents and the students at our numerous universities can remotely access the research materials, music, movies, reference books, and reading materials.

I would finally, FINALLY be able to play XBOX 360 games without lag.
 
Also, if Internet were really that fast, I would love to find musicians with electronic instruments like my drumset and access to similar networks and see if the latency were low enough to actually jam over IP.

Be able to get information for school projects quicker & faster than ever...

Stay connected and be able to connect with my family all over the world with the web cam

I work at home frequently and need to connect with people and libraries in different parts of the country and the world. It would make life easier to have a faster download, and I would have to spend less time waiting for the computer to download.

Connect to work better, so I can work in Jersey City.  Use video conferencing for work at the office and in Asia and family especially grandchild in Uruguay.

Professionally, being able to access a greater amount of content instantaneously would be greatly beneficial to my business as well as my personal interests as a media consumer.

Work more efficiently and grow start-up file transfer business more effectively
.
Enhance my home based business in a struggling economy requiring a more entrepreneurial approach to success

Download videos, maps, and documents

I'd get a lot more research work done.

I would advocate that every public space, every public building, school (Public or private) all have internet access. Also that apartment buildings with more then three floors have a way for tenants to access the internet at very discounted price. Landlords should be able to apply for grants (Federal or state) for their properties to be wired for this kind of access. Access could be wireless or people could plug in where safe.

OPEN COMPUTING!!!BLOG ,VLOG, get famous

I represent a number of digital production companies who I have been trying to persuade to open up US based offices in Jersey City. I think this would lock that up. It would be any amazing asset to the city and would bring many creatively inclined clients like mine who want to be in close proximity to NYC but want cutting edge options to do so.

I would do everything I currently do 100 times faster, plus tons of things that I currently don't do because of bandwidth concerns

I would like it for some video projects I have so I can send large files faster and/or stream video to others

There are just too many things to enumerate here.

Blog about what a great place Jersey City is!

Getting this blazing fast web access would completely revolutionize this neighborhood and FAST! Please pick us!

Communicate with family around the world, read local news, and shop online.

I work from home as much as I'm in the office, this would greatly behoove my professional life. Please please please PLEASE come to JC you'll love us! :))

Connect consumers/residents to local businesses and local businesses to local businesses; connect consumers/residents/businesses to local/state government.  This will increase communication and efficiency amongst the Jersey City community.

The sky is the limit :)

Watch more streaming TEDtalks, Skype with friends and family around the world. Learn to play piano and learn more advanced photography techniques via online video tutorials. Make work from home sick days more efficient.

I'd multitask like it's my job! Because sometimes it IS my job. I work from home occasionally as a copywriter and need to be able to work on multiple Web sites, sometimes downloading journal articles, PowerPoint presentations, or accessing large files via my work's remote access portal. 

And sometimes, I want to multitask like I'm NOT working -- which means visiting travel Web sites, catching up on social networks, or watching TV online.

My small business that I just opened would have a lot more opportunities to work with their client around the world. Skype could actually be used in a proper way for me to reach my global clientele.

I'd learn piano.

I am an actress, director and producer. At the moment I am working on a benefit performance for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, premiering in June. If I had blazing fast web access I would be able to create and update web materials much more efficiently, hence freeing up more time to devote to fortifying other revenue streams for the cause.

I would be able to run an efficient, low cost, home business, providing free financial advisory assistance to the numerous individuals who are in dire need of counseling to help them in surviving this economic crisis. In addition, my boyfriend would be able to pursue his dream as a super producer, hopefully becoming the next Kanye West and my children could advance their interest in inventing health food that tastes great (i.e. fiber that tastes like cheesecake) and a campaign to spread awareness on the benefits of US children becoming more educated on the endless possibilities of green energy.

Being a Fashion Stylist, I use the internet for more than typical surfing of the web." I would be able to find out the information I need to better perform my job...at lightning fast speed!? What an edge! This is a great opportunity. I hope to be using it very soon.

I want to be able to video conference to my relatives -- most especially try to live with my kids who are in Boston and Philadelphia. With speedy internet I can have an always on computer in my living room open to my kids' homes and live in an extended space near them!

I would work from home more often! I work in QA and software project management and need fast, consistent internet access. I do not need to work in a specific location, though -- the reason I work out of my company's NY location is because we have a full T1. When I work from home, though, I spend more money in Jersey City -- at the local deli down the street, at the yarn shop, the farmer's market, etc. A faster network would mean more dollars to our local economy!

Hack the Chinese censor firewalls

Survey Says
Our survey results (as of 12:45 PM, March 24, 2010) show the following:

Do you live and/or work in Jersey City?

What City Ward do you live in?

How do you currently access the internet?

What does Google say?
But enough about us - what does Google say about us?

Below are the relative number of Google hits for a non-random sample of queries:

Of course, it's true that Lady Gaga checks in with 88,500,000 hits  - but obviously Jersey City can hold its own in cyberspace.

Additional Materials
Articles highlighting Jersey City's redevelopment and economic growth. Read 

2005 American Community Survey Results. Read 

Population by Ward. View 

Large Ward Map. View 

Surficial Geology of the Jersey City Quadrangle (seriously). View 

Download GIS/Google Earth files. Go 

City Fiber Map. View 

Mayor Healy's letter of support. Read 

Council Resolution 10-180  Read 

Latest survey results.  View

Unabridged survey comments. Read