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And the Winner of Google's Ultra High-Speed Internet Is ...


Kansas City, Kansas, will be the first city to receive Google's experimental high-speed Internet network. The announcement Wednesday ends a year-long process that sparked a heated nationwide competition between more than 1,000 U.S. communities.

The search giant first announced its intention to build an experimental fiber network with speeds 100 times faster than the typical U.S. Internet connection — an astounding 1 GB per second. Google's goal wasn't to become an Internet service provider (ISP) that would compete with the likes of Comcast but rather was to help push broadband and Internet delivery forward.

After Google's initial announcement, dozens of cities started their own campaigns to persuade Google to bring its high-speed network to their cities. Most famously, Topeka, Kansas, briefly changed its name to Google, Kansas, but other cities went to great lengths to get Google's attention.

Now, a full year later, the technology titan has chosen its winner: Kansas City, which has already signed a development agreement with Google to start the project.

So why did Google choose Kansas City, a city with a population of 145,000? Here is the company's explanation:


If your city wasn't chosen, don't fret; Google says it is "looking closely at ways to bring ultra high-speed Internet to other cities across the country." If Kansas City turns out to be a success, then don't be surprised if Google Fiber starts stretching its way from coast to coast. That's good news for Topeka, Kansas City's neighbor sixty miles to the west.

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