Fiber to Home in Palm Bay

(Palm Bay)—The City of Palm Bay is pursuing an opportunity to become a test site for a new ultra high speed broadband network that could potentially deliver internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today and citizens will play a critical role in the effort. Google is planning to launch an experiment to provide fiber to the home network capabilities and is asking municipalities and residents to provide information that will help the company determine where to build its network. “It’s an opportunity for us to facilitate new technology and directly benefit from it,” said Mike Maier, the City’s Chief Information Officer. “We want to hear from the public about why it’s important for them to have access to this type of technology and if they want to be a part of the experiment to bring it to Palm Bay.” Google is touting development of an ultra high-speed network capable of delivering 1 gigabit per second fiber-to-the-home connections at competitive prices to at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people.

The public will have two opportunities to voice its opinions about the project in a pair of public forums that have been scheduled for March 4th and March 9th from 7-9 PM on both dates. The forums will be held at the Palm Bay City Council Chambers located at City Hall, 120 Malabar Rd. SE. Residents and community advocates are encouraged to provide feedback online by visiting
www.google.com/appserve/fiberrfi/public/options prior to the March 26th deadline for consideration. Residents and interested parties are also encouraged to attend one of the two public forums regarding the project.

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