Wow, how would Google 1Gig Fiber to the Home reshape Bethlehem?
First thing that came to mind was Wall Street West. We could be the real-time backup center for the center of the financial markets in the US. Imagine what that would do for jobs here in the Lehigh Valley. Just need the fast fiber connection to NY. Add high speed rail while we are laying that fiber please! High speed rail would also make it much easier for people to live here and work in NY.
We have 2 great hospitals here in Bethlehem. Imagine robotic surgery being performed here by a doctor across the world, or doctor’s here doing remote operations/diagnosis. Lehigh University could be a spark for all sorts of research and development. I’m sure LVIP and BethWorks have space for those kind of companies.
Having GB service would reverse the brain drain and make Bethlehem a magnet for the creative. Streaming concerts and performances, video data warehousing – Netflix on steroids without the post office! (I love Netflix but let’s face it, it’s moving to a streaming model eventually). How about 3D animation for Hollywood movies. Dreamworks, hello? Bethlehem’s calling on line 1!
Where great high paying jobs go, there tends to be great lifestyle or sometimes where there is great lifestyle, jobs follow. We benefit from a great arts, cultural and soon to be music scene and we benefit from proximity to everything. If Google came to town, ALOT of people would want to be based here.
I site Ogden UT as an example. Their asset? Proximity to the greatest snow on Earth! They have a smart mayor…he recruited ski and snowsport companies to be based there. Ogden’s got it going on. Bethlehem could be the center of all things centering on data.
Years ago, Bethlehem was a national security site with Bethlehem Steel. Bethlehem was on the radar of foreign powers for the strategic asset of Bethlehem Steel. Well, now data rules and Bethlehem could be the place where data (and the brainiacs that make data magical) lives and again become a strategic asset.
Google Fiber is the kind of Fiber I’d like in my diet please! What would you do with that kind of fiber in your diet?
Tags: Google Broadband