But in July, Google announced a process in which only those areas where enough residents preregistered and paid a $10 deposit would get the service, Google Fiber. While nearly all of the affluent, mostly white neighborhoods here quickly got enough registrants, a broad swath of black communities lagged. The deadline to sign up was midnight Sunday.
The specter that many blacks in this city might not get access to this technology has inflamed the long racial divide here, stoking concern that it could deepen.
