Salt Lake City completes initial steps in Google Fiber process. Jasen Lee. Deseret News.

SALT LAKE CITY — Salt Lake City announced Friday that the city has completed the first stage in a process that may lead to high-speed Google Fiber service for its residents.

In February, Salt Lake City made the short list of 33 cities nationwide working with Google to explore the possibility of bringing the ultra high-speed Google Fiber broadband network to local residents. To be considered, Salt Lake City was asked to provide a response to the Google Fiber City Checklist by May 1. The city submitted all required items and will continue with Google through its due diligence process.

"Salt Lake City has been great to work with. They became fiber experts quickly, and they were incredibly organized as they worked on their checklist," said Jenna Wandre, spokeswoman for Google Fiber. "They also proactively lead on steps beyond the checklist (and have) told us that they're already working to make their permitting process better and faster so that it can handle large infrastructure projects like Fiber."

If approved, Salt Lake City would join Provo as the second Utah city to get the high-speed network. In April 2013, Provo announced that it would become the third city in the nation to have Google Fiber, along with Kansas City, Missouri, and Austin, Texas.

Google plans to announce which cities will be selected for Google Fiber by the end of the year.

Jasen Lee. Deseret News.

          

 Members of the media talk with Michael Slinger, director of business operations for Google Fiber following a press event in Salt Lake City, Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2014, announcing that Salt Lake is one of nine areas being considered for Google Fiber. (Ravell Call, Deseret News)