By Gus G. Sentementes, The Baltimore Sun
Two months ago, city officials and business leaders were giddy with the notion that Baltimore maybe — just maybe — could lure Google Inc. to build a next-generation fiber-optic network for blazing-fast Internet service.
On Wednesday, a larger group of city boosters wrestled with a more sobering possibility: What if Google doesn’t choose Baltimore? More than 1,100 communities across the United States are vying for Google’s Fiber for Communities pilot project. And Google isn’t expected to announce a winner until the end of the year.