The city of Gainesville will have some steep competition in getting Google's attention.

Friday was the deadline for cities to express interest.

More than 600 communities have approached the Internet mogul in hopes of landing one of the ultra-fast broadband networks that the company plans to build in a handful of spots around the country.

Last month, Google said it will build experimental fiber-optic networks that will deliver Internet connections of 1 gigabit-per-second. That would be up to 300 times faster than the broadband services reaching most homes.

The company will announce winners by the end of the year.