Google's offer to build ultra-high-speed broadband in several trial locations has cities scrambling to be chosen for the groundbreaking launch.

Though the offer is scarce on details, cities from Mountain View and Palo Alto, California, to St. Louis, Seattle, and Baltimore are preparing proposals for Google. On its blog earlier this month, the company announced plans to build fiber networks more than 100 times faster than most existing consumer Internet connections.

Cities covet those fast networks to make themselves more appealing for company relocations, both from within their region and beyond. "You talk to companies, and if they can’t get the bandwidth, it’s tough for them to locate,” says Ellis Berns, city manager of Mountain View, California, which also is the home of Google Inc.

The Google broadband project would allow municipalities to get cutting-edge technology at a competitive, albeit still unspecified, price.

Google has set an application deadline of March 26. It has offered prospective participants little information beyond instructions for submitting proposals, a five-minute background video, and answers to 11 frequently asked questions.

Google has enticed cities with one alluring promise, though. It says its broadband service will connect users to the Internet at a speed of 1 gigabit per second. That would be a breathtaking boost for most people, who currently connect at an average speed of 3.9 megabits per second.

"Imagine sitting in a rural health clinic, streaming three-dimensional medical imaging over the Web, and discussing a unique condition with a specialist in New York. Or downloading a high-definition, full-length feature film in less than five minutes. Or collaborating with classmates around the world while watching live 3-D video of a university lecture," Google says.

Google's proposed network makes the Federal Communication Commission's proposal to boost Internet speeds look sluggish. One week after Google made its announcement, the FCC proposed a plan to deliver 100 megabit broadband connection to 260 million people by 2020.

Google says it wants to test its service in cities with 50,000 to 500,000 people, which would exclude the largest municipalities in the United States.

Seattle, which has a population of 582,000, might be a bit too big for the project. But city officials hope Google will include the city anyway, as a challenge to its rival, Seattle-based Microsoft. "I hope that Microsoft offers something similar, and we'd jump on that as well," says Bill Schrier, Seattle's chief technology officer. Seattle's newly elected mayor, Mike McGinn, is also supporting Seattle's Google application.

In some cities, voters are pushing their city to apply. St. Louis decided to apply after residents began tweeting Mayor Francis Slay about the project. Baltimore has created the website bmorefiber.com to generate local support to apply for Google broadband.