The Woodlands Township wants to bring ultra-high speed Internet service to the community.

The Woodlands Township is applying for a national search by Google to pilot its ultra-high speed broadband network, which is 1,000 times faster than services offered in the community. Google is looked for one or more trial locations across the country with a population of 50,000 to 500,000.

“I think this is a great opportunity for the draw,” said William Pham, information technology director for the township. “Geeks like me love this type of stuff.”

With the higher speed network, residents who work at home could enjoy a “virtual office” which would work in real time with their corporate centers. Games, music downloads and video streaming would be near instantaneous, Pham said.

The Woodlands is an excellent candidate for the pilot project because it is already wired with fiber optics. The infrastructure is in place community wide and about 3,400 homes, or about 10 percent of the houses here, are already hooked up to a fiber optic network.

Because it is a nationwide search, community support is vital and the township is seeking residents to file applications of support. About 100 residents and businesses have done so to date, and residents are encouraged to fill out a short survey on the township site at www.thewoodlandstownship-tx.gov.

The application is due by March 26.

The Google network, which would be offered at competitive prices for residents and community groups, would operate at 1 gigabyte per second. The cable and DSL services operating in the community run at speeds of six to 12 megabytes per second. There are 1,024 megabytes in a gigabyte.

The Woodlands will compete with many prominent cities across the country and in Texas, including Sugar Land, Austin, Seattle and Topeka, Kansas. Topeka is trying to sweeten its deal by offering to rename its city to Google for a month, Pham said.

The Woodlands Township board is scheduled to vote on the application at its meeting on March 24, but there was widespread support for the proposal at the executive committee Wednesday.

“I think it’s a great idea,” said Board Member Lloyd Matthews.

The lengthy proposal requests community background information, collaboration on the Google Fiber Trial, community support, facilities and resources, construction methods and regulatory issues.

The Woodlands Township will take the lead on the application, but it also will include support from The South Montgomery County Woodlands Chamber of Commerce and its Economic Development Partnership, Montgomery County Precinct 3 and ITX Wavemedia.

“I am very glad that all these entities are working together on this application,” said Nelda Luce Blair, chairwoman of the township. “What an exciting thing. It sounds like The Woodlands Township would be the perfect place to have this and now we have to convince Google to come here.”