It’s been a bonanza for public relations folks who can dream up zany stunts that feed the our news media’s thirst for “man bites dog” stories. Google reported Friday that they had received more than 1,100 community responses to the broadband fiber request for information (RFI) and more than 194,000 responses from individuals.

The company dashed a bit of cold water on those hopes when it reminded us that the goal of this experiment is to “reach a total of at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people with this experiment.”

But what city/cities should really win Google’s broadband challenge?

Greenville, SC Creates Google Logo With More Than 2,000 People Holding LED Glow Sticks; Photo by Michael Bergen, AidJoy.org

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This Associated Press story asks if billions are spent to fund broadband to unserved areas will it do any good?  Will new people sign up for broadband (51% say they’re not interested)? Will there be a “network effect” creating new jobs?

I wonder if the money were spent to upgrade the current system to make it cheaper and faster (think South Korea) whether that would be a better way to stimulate new business opportunities, more broadband users, new applications?