Telecommunications

Kansas City is first city chosen for Google's fiber-to-the-home rollout

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Kansas City, Kansas, will be the first city to benefit from Google's 1Gbps network (Image: Airtuna08)
Kansas City will be the first city to benefit from Google's 1Gbps network (Image: Pam_Broviak via Flickr)
Kansas City, Kansas, will be the first city to benefit from Google's 1Gbps network (Image: Airtuna08)

Last year Google announced plans to build and test ultra high-speed broadband networks in a small number of trial locations across the U.S. that will deliver Internet speeds of one gigabit per second (1 Gbps) via a fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) service. After receiving submissions from nearly 1,100 cities, the Internet giant has now revealed it will build its first ultra high-speed network in Kansas City, Kansas.

In evaluating the submissions Google considered factors such as where it could efficiently build the network, where it would have an impact on the community and where it could develop relationships with local government and community organizations. Kansas City ticked all the boxes and Google has now signed a development agreement with the city and says it will be working with local organizations, businesses and universities to bring the benefits of the ultra high-speed network to the community.

Google says it will also be working with local organizations, such as the Kauffman Foundation, KCNext and the University of Kansas Medical Center, to help develop applications that take advantage of the network's gigabit speeds.

Google plans to start offering the ultra high-speed service from 2012 – pending approval from Kansas City's Board of Commissioners. And in response to the cities that were disappointed to have missed out on the initial selection, Google says it will talk with interested cities over the coming months about the possibility of expanding the network to other cities across the U.S. in the future.

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3 comments
AndreDantzler
We have had fiber optic available in Chattanooga for the last year. It is great! I have the basic package and it is 30 Mbps up and 30 Mbps down. Nice. Even better is the price about $60.00 US a month. They offer speeds up to 1000 Mbps. Check it out www.epbfi.com. I am a happy camper. Andre\'
AlexBizzar
I\'m all for a speed like this. Files are getting bigger, computers are getting better, and flash drives/external hard drives are getting larger. I guess it\'s just a natural process that the internet speed up with it. I can\'t tell you how many files I work in that are at least 800MB. Good to see that Google is trying to improve life and not hawk crap to us. I wonder what the costs are going to be like for this, though. Sorry Mr. Brin, but whenever I hear or see you now, I\'m immediately going to think of Everybody Loves Raymond.
Jake Dhillon
Last time I read about this, they said that Google was giving it away for FREE to the test market recipients. Unless that has changed somehow? Regardless, with this bandwidth a whole range of possibilities open up. Just now with Net Neutrality under attack, it may all be a moot point.