Excited cities are sending applications to Google since it announced that Topeka wished to be Google's testbed for the new 1Gbps network. Google wants to provide ultra-speedy access to a minimum 50,000 people and up to 500,000 people in one or more test locations. Interested citizens and municipalities can notify Google with the required information by March 26.

"Grand Rapids owns about a third of the utility poles in the city. We also have a significant amount of underground conduit and some dark fiber. Use of those assets and others that we might have available might be negotiable", said Sally Wesorick, an IT analyst for Grand Rapids.

Dozens of Facebook pages have been aimed to tantalize Google to various markets. A Facebook page has been set up by the Rural Broadband Cooperative, and the users can click to the Google site from there to nominate their community.

"Google is accepting nominations for towns that are interested in Google's gigabit fiber optic Internet service. Let's do this together and let Google know we'd love to see them bring super fast fiber interconnections to the valley", reads the page.