GRESHAM, Ore. -- The City of Gresham announced its intention Friday to vie for Google Fiber -- an ultra high-speed fiber-optic network that is 100 times faster than the Internet connections currently available to most Americans.

People who live in Gresham can nominate their city at greshamoregon.gov/GoogleFiber.

A city spokeswoman said the project would have a "broad-reaching, positive impact" on Gresham's businesses and residents.

City officials believe Google Fiber would strengthen educational resources, enhance capabilities for existing companies, improve video streaming and increase workplace sustainability values through teleconferencing and telecommuting.

"Gresham is an ideal match for Google," said Laura Bridges-Shepard, the city's communications manager. "What we need now is for Gresham residents to tell Google they also want the network here and what they would do with it."

Google said several thousand citizens have nominated their communities since it announced plans in mid-February to build the network in a handful of areas. The company has set a March 26 deadline for city governments and citizens to express interest, and Google plans to announce winners by the end of the year.

The networks would deliver data at 1 gigabit per second to homes and businesses. Google has not said how many cities it intends to serve, or how much it is willing to spend to do it.

Similar to Gresham, cities all across the country have announced their plans to vie for Google Fiber.