• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, March 2, 2010

Lest there be any doubt how badly U.S. residents want better broadband service, consider this news tidbit: Topeka, Kansas has renamed itself "Google," in an attempt to entice the search company to choose the city for a test of its upcoming fiber-to-the-home Web service.

Mayor Bill Bunten issued the renaming proclamation on Monday. The new name will only be in effect for the month of March.

The city-formerly-known-as-Topeka pulled a similar stunt on at least one other occasion: In August 1998, then Mayor Joan Wagnon temporarily changed the city's name to "ToPikachu," after Pokemon's Pikachu.

Still, despite the city's apparent inclination to rename itself, the fact that it chose Google now shows just how mediocre U.S. broadband service has become. Google's new service would deliver speeds of 1 Gpbs -- more than 250 times the average U.S. broadband speed of 3.9 Mbps, according to Akamai. Currently, average broadband speed is higher in 17 other countries -- including South Korea (14.6 Mpbs), Romania (6.2 Mpbs) and Denmark (4.8 Mpbs), Akamai reports.

Broadband in the U.S is also expensive: The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said last year that broadband costs an average of $46 a month in the U.S. -- higher than in 13 other countries including Sweden ($29), Italy ($31) and Belgium ($40).

Perhaps, also, the renaming also shows that Google will weather some recent public relations stumbles -- including its recent botched launch of Buzz. If nothing else, the move at least shows that the company still has some goodwill with Kansas residents.