ANDERSON, Ind. — Anderson wants Google.
It’s written in primary colors across a sign in front of City Hall.
It’s plastered across the home page of the city Web site.
And on Monday, it was screamed from the stage of the Paramount Theatre downtown.
City officials held a rally at the Paramount to film their submission tape for Google’s nationwide contest that pits city against city in hopes of winning the Internet giant’s next big idea.
Google is currently searching for a few communities in the country to test its broadband Internet along fiber optic lines directly into the homes of customers.
According to the Google Web site, Anderson could be at the forefront of the next generation in Internet service. “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’ll offer service at a competitive price to at least 50,000, and potentially up to 500,000 people.”
The city paid Covenant Productions to film the rally Monday and plans to send the video to Google, in hopes of prompting the company to select Anderson for the project.
Mayor Kris Ockomon led the rousing rally at the Paramount with fist pumps, shouts and buckets of energy.
Even state Sen. Tim Lanane, D-Anderson, fell prey to the excitement.
Lanane spoke of Anderson’s many ups and downs in history, excitedly proclaiming that the city would make its comeback.
“We’re coming back up, baby, and we need Google to come to Anderson, Indiana,” Lanane cried. “We’ve got the best chance of all.”
Audience members wore primary colors to mimic the red, green, blue and yellow letters in the Google name and filed on stage at Ockomon’s request, chanting “Google, Google, Google.”
Bill VanNess, president and CEO of Community Hospital, said Anderson has a good shot at winning the Google competition.
“We have a lot of diversity. Clearly we attracted Nestlé and they could have been anywhere in the world.”
Anderson’s director of economic development, Linda Dawson, said the city is already built for the high-speed network because the city owns its own electric utility and maintains a vast fiber optic network that circles the entire town.
The city, in hopes of drawing Google’s attention, has bought the domain name www.cityofgoogle.com. When Internet users type the phrase into their World Wide Web address bars, they are taken directly to the city’s home page.
Doug Stanton of the Anderson Police Department admitted that he’s a bit obsessed with computers and works with them at work.
He said the Google advantage could mean increased public safety for Anderson and an edge in economic development. “It would be so nice to say Anderson, Indiana, has the fastest Internet in the world.”
Anderson is up against many other U.S. cities, including Topeka, Kan., which recently changed the city’s name to Google, Kansas.
See related national story on www.theheraldbulletin.com
More corners of the country would have high-speed Internet access and existing connections would become much faster under a sweeping proposal to overhaul U.S. broadband policy that is being unveiled Tuesday by the Federal Communications Commission.
Contact Brandi Watters, 640-4847, brandi.watters@heraldbulletin.com
