03 March 2010 | Author: D. Warburton Search Copywriter

'Google, Kansas' changes name to secure broadband bid

A Kansas town has changed its name to 'Google' for the month of March, as part of a bid for the search giant to roll out fibre-optic broadband internet across the town.

Mayor of Topeka, Bill Bunten, announced the unofficial name change on Monday, explaining: "It's just fun. We're having a good time of it.

"There's a lot of good things that are going on in our city."

Xinhua reports that this bid by Topeka/Google comes as a number of US cities compete for inclusion in Google's Fiber for Communities program, which will see the company installing new fiber-optic connections in several locations as part of its pilot project. These cities, currently unannounced, will enjoy internet speeds 100 times faster than elsewhere, which could lead to data transfer rates in excess of one gigabit per second.

Google explained: "We'll offer service at a competitive price to at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people.

"The purpose of this project is to experiment and learn. Network providers are making real progress to expand and improve high-speed Internet access, but there's still more to be done. We don't think we have all the answers - but through our trial, we hope to make a meaningful contribution to the shared goal of delivering faster and better Internet for everyone."

Cities have until 26 March to announce their interest for inclusion in Google's pilot program, which will be an extension of a project previously undertaken in the vicinity of the company's Mountain View headquarters near San Jose.

Google has declined to comment on whether it will be taking Topeka/Google's name change into account. This isn't the first time Topeka has sought attention with a temporary name change, having previously renamed itself 'ToPikachu' in August 1998 after a character from Nintendo's popular Pokemon franchise.

Mayor Bunten told CNN his town's name change would not be permanent, saying: "We are very proud of our city and Topeka is an Indian word which means 'a good place to grow potatoes.' We're not going to change that."

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