By: Robert J. Terry

The growing push to convince search engine giant Google to build an ultra-fast broadband network in Baltimore has picked up a high-profile backer: Andres Alonso, CEO of the Baltimore City Public Schools.

And as befits such an endeavor, Alonso is smartly making his pitch via a high-tech platform, in this case a slickly produced piece of Web video uploaded to YouTube and Vimeo. In the 1:51 clip, Alonso, seated in his office, makes a direct appeal to Google to help boost the pace of academic improvement in city schools.

In too many cases, he says, “home access to the Internet is a costly luxury that is financially out of reach for hardworking parents.”

Damian “Chip” Dizard of Absolute Presence, a Baltimore Web design and multimedia firm, shot and edited the video.

Baltimore is just one city hoping to be a test market for the high-profile project, which Google unveiled Feb. 10. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company is asking for a request for information, or RFI, to identify government organizations and other groups that would be a good fit for the trial. Its application deadline is March 26.

The network is expected to deliver Internet speeds on fiber-optic cables more than 100 times faster than the Web access enjoyed by most Americans, but Google yet to release other details, such as the cost to build the network and what it would charge customers.

What started as a grassroots push among local techies appears to now be spreading to Baltimore’s public sector, which organizers say will be critical to earning Google’s nod.