Google's selection today of Kansas City, Kansas, to host a super-fast Internet meant that nearly 50 North Carolina communities lost out on their bid to claim the technology prize.

The Triangle alone accounted for nine contenders to host the Google network that's 100 times faster than the high-speed Internet available to most people today. In all, some 1,100 communities around the country vied for the prestige of getting rewired by Google and for the validation attached to becoming a Google host city.

Public officials preened, pranced and bragged about their technology geeks and their love of affair with all things Google. In the end, most knew that their application was a technological lottery, a statistical long shot that could not be improved with publicity stunts.

"There's no shock. Anytime there's 1,100 communities across the country, the competition is very keen," said Bruce Radford, town manager in Apex. "We didn't rename the town Google for a month, we didn't have a Google day. We did ours straight up, purely on the merits."

North Carolina's broadband speeds are in line with the U.S. average but rank 38th nationwide, according to a labor union that represents telecommunications workers.

The Commmunications Workers of American issued its finding today as part of the union's support of increasing broadband access and speed for the public -- a goal everyone seems to share but one that has proven difficult to achieve.

According to the CWA, the Tar Heel state median speed is 3 megabits per second, which is below the federal recommended standard or 4 megabits per second. However, more than half this state's counties exceed the Federal Communication Commission's minimum recommended standard, including Wake and Mecklenburg counties.

Nearly 2,000 low-income households in Raleigh will receive free Internet service as part of a major federal stimulus grant to subsidize broadband access to the poor.

The project has previously installed free Internet in the Chavis Heights and Heritage Park communities in Raleigh.

Next it will extend the free Internet service to 1,877 residents in 27 more low-income developments in the city, according to the Raleigh's Community Services Department.

Residents will receive free high-speed Internet for two years and afterwards can continue receiving the service for $10 a month. The service is installed as a Wi-Fi zone encompassing an entire low-income neighborhood.

When the broadband service is installed to all designated neighborhoods by 2012, about 44 percent of Raleigh's low-income population will have free broadband service, said Linda Jones, who is managing the broadband project for the city.

The program, called Raleigh Connected, is funded by One Economy Corp., a nonprofit in Washington DC that received the federal stimulus money and will contribute $1.3 million for the Raleigh expansion. The entire cost of the project comes from $28.5 milion in stimulus funds and $23 million in matching support from the private sector.

The program will also train 60 "digital connectors," aged 14 to 21, to help low-income residents learn how to use computers and the Internet. 

North Carolina has been awarded $115 million in federal stimulus grants to improve broadband access in the state.

It's the state's second stimulus infusion for broadband development, bringing total grants received to more than $255 million. The grants are part of the $7.2 billion for national broadband deployment in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or stimulus package.

In the latest round, this state received five grants. They will pay for new fiber-optic cable, public computer centers and public computer workstations, primarily in rural and poor areas.

The grants went to the Yadkin Valley Telephone Membership Corp., Olive Hill Community Economic Development, WinstonNet, City of Charlotte and MCNC, the Raleigh nonprofit that provides high-speed Internet access to educational institutions.

North Carolina has received $83 million in federal grants to extend broadband connectivity in rural parts of the state.

The money will pay for five of 126 broadband projects that have received federal stimulus money.

For a list of the projects keep reading.
 

The Federal Communications Commission wants to find out whether broadband providers are delivering Internet connections that are as fast as advertised.

If you get an e-mail this week asking you to participate in an online survey about your use of broadband services, don't delete it. It's not spam. 

The e-mail is going to more than 100,000 businesses, nonprofits, local governments and households and is being sent by e-NC Authority.

The state agency was awarded a $2 million grant last year from the U.S. Department of Commerce National Telecommunications and Information Administration (henceforth referred to as NTIA) to map broadband access and use across North Carolina.

The information the agency gathers will go into a larger, national broadband map being developed by NTIA and will be used to to guide policies and investment in broadband.

If you don't get the e-mail and want to participate, you can take the survey at the authority's Web site, here.

A Raleigh telecommunications engineering firm has been awarded a contract to design a 500-mile broadband network in rural counties in North Carolina.

ONUG Communications will design the network for MCNC, a nonprofit created by the N.C. General Assembly more than a quarter-century ago to wire the state's public schools.
The money for the contract will come from a $28.2 million federal stimulus grant MCNC received from the U.S. Department of Commerce. 

The new broadband infrastructure to be developed by ONUG will expand the capacity of the existing N.C. Research and Education Network, which provides Internet and Intranet services to nearly all the state's three million K-20 students.

MCNC estimates the project will add up to 1,000 temporary positions and about a dozen permanent jobs. In addition, ONUG plans to fill 10 temporary jobs and three long-term positions

MCNC will be awarding other contracts for the project this year.

MCNC is also applying for $78 million in federal grants to further expand broadband infrastructure in the state.

The Golden LEAF Foundation has pledged $24 million toward an effort to bring broadband Internet to 69 counties throughout North Carolina.

The grant money was awarded to the non-profit MCNC, which has applied to the federal government for funding in round two of the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program. NCNC's total proposal was $111 million, but organizations applying are required to come up with 30 percent of their proposal totals in local matching funds.

Golden LEAF's $24 million will make up the majority of those required matching funds, with another $9 million already pledged by other organizations, said Golden LEAF president Dan Gerlach. It will be late summer or early fall before MCNC knows whether the federal government will award it the money.

If the proposal is approved the money will go to provide fiber broadband access to school districts, community college campuses, libraries, universities and other public institutions in those 69 counties, 67 of which were found to be underserved. The effort would create an estimated 1,000 engineering and construction jobs.

Communications regulators are unveiling a sweeping proposal to overhaul U.S. broadband policy. Their aim: to bring affordable, high-speed Internet connections to all Americans and make access much faster for people who already have broadband.