For some time now there has been talk of Google just going out and building experimental fiber optic networks in the US to test out the infrastructure, and the response has been extraordinary. Including cities renaming themselves to Google to draw the company’s attention. Other mayors have swam with sharks and dove into frozen lakes.

Personally, I think we could use more guys like these in the federal government.

Google’s official blog announced last night that the deadline for applying to get the free ultra-fast internet is now over. As of that time, last night at 5:26 PM, they had received nearly 200,000 letters from people asking Google to come to their area, and 1100+ formal demands from community governments.

Google promises to name the communities they have selected by year’s end and announced plans to reach a minimum of 50,000 up to around 500,000 citizens with fiber-optic access once they have worked out all the arrangements with the selected communities and the third parties who will implement the physical labor.

The map above shows the concentration of requests to Google as of 1:30 PM yesterday. The small dots are government requests and large dots show areas where more than 1,000 private citizens submitted a request.