Google want to catapault America into High-Speed broadband: and will piss people off till they do

High-speed internet will be as important as roads and clean water said Google CEO Eric Schmidt in a strongly worded blog post on the Google Official Blog.

It’s the latest broadside from Google in an attempt to get more of America on high-speed internet. And Schmidt doesn’t pull any punches: America is falling behind, America needs broadband to overcome the recession, the American health system and education will deteriorate if they don’t have broadband built into them.

“networks in many countries, from Western Europe to East Asia, are faster and more advanced than our own. Long after we recover from this recession, this broadband gap will be a dead weight on American businesses and workers, unless we act now.“

– he says, before comparing the challenge of wiring up America to the space race in the 60s.

“As with the space race in the 1960s, America needs a national effort by our scientists, engineers, companies, educational institutions and government agencies.”

Google are choosing 10 towns in America to which they will provide ultra high-speed internet in a move that has got townships clamouring for the honour (one city even temporarily changed its name to Google) and internet providers grumbling that this stunt by Google will leave them saddled with a demand they can’t fulfill.

See the full post on the Google Blog

Related: Kansas city to be renamed Google – for a month