Google Appoints VP Of Fiber, Delays Announcing Where It Will Roll Out

When we heard about Google’s plan to deploy 1 gigabit-per-second broadband to homes across the U.S., we started drooling. But Google was quick to temper expectations, noting that their initial trial deployment would cover only around 50,000 homes (though they left the door open to the possibility of 500,000 homes). And to decide where they should first deploy it, they decided to ask communities to apply. Many did. In weird ways. Google was supposed to pick a winner by the end of the year. That isn’t going to happen.

As they’ve announced in an update on their blog this morning, “we’re not quite ready to make that announcement.” The reason? Google says they want to take more time to make sure they get it right. “To be clear, we’re not re-opening our selection process—we simply need more time to decide than we’d anticipated,” they note.

Google says that 1,100 communities across the country put in a request for the fiber. And to handle the response, Google has now appointed a VP of Fiber. Okay, that’s not his actual title. But Milo Medin, is Google’s new Vice President of Access Services. He’s the one who wrote the post, noting that he joined Google this week.

Google has been experimenting their their fiber roll-out on their own campus, and has announced plans for a “beta” network to 850 home around Stanford.

Medin says the final announcement about where the broader roll-out will begin will take place now in “early 2011.”

Below, find the map of nationwide interest in Google Fiber based on responses to Google about it.