• MercuryNews.com, Wednesday, December 15, 2010 1 PM

Google on Wednesday appointed Milo Medin to head its various broadband initiatives as VP of access services. Medin -- co-founder of what Mercury News calls the first major U.S. residential broadband provider, @Home Network -- will first help Google decide where to build a high-speed Internet "demonstration network." Citing overwhelming interest in the network -- along with unexpected complexities -- Google is waiting until early next year to name the lucky U.S. city or town.

"Google struck a nerve in February when it said it was looking to choose at least one community that would get a high-speed broadband network ... to demonstrate how high-speed Internet could change people's lives," Mercury News writes. "A total of 1,078 cities, counties and states filed applications, ranging from Anchorage, Alaska, to Aguas Buenas, Puerto Rico." California reportedly had the most entries -- 130 cities and counties, including San Jose, Oakland, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Cupertino, Contra Costa County and over a dozen other Bay Area communities.

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