Alaska receives ARRA funds for broadband, Anchorage tries to attract Google

Google has stated that it plans to provide its 1 gigabyte per second high-speed internet connection to a place that really needs it to prove how valuable internet access is to modern education and economic success.

Anchorage, Alaska has made the latest push to become the first city to be selected by the search engine giant for its service. Anchorage's efforts comes on the same day that the state nearly $90 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to improve broadband access throughout the stay.

"This is a wonderful opportunity to bring broadband services to that region of the state," Bruce Broquet of GCI, the company installing the broadband, told the Alaska Journal of Commerce. "Once you've decided you're going to do it, the wheels have to start turning immediately."

Despite the often slow speeds, a higher percentage of people in Alaska report using the internet on a daily basis than any other state in the country. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, an October 2009 survey revealed that 79 percent of the population uses the internet at least once per day.