The real reason why Google chose Kansas City as its first fiber-networked city

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Ultra high speed internet

After much anticipation, and 1,100 towns and cities applying, Google has signed a development agreement with Kansas City to build out a fiber-optic network bringing broadband speed of 1Gb/s which could be ready as soon as 2012. Google claims pricing will be comparable to currently available (yet much slower) options. Our first thought was, will people relocate their business or home to Kansas City because of the implications (not to mention usefulness) of a fiber networked city?

“In selecting a city, our goal was to find a location where we could build efficiently, make an impact on the community and develop relationships with local government and community organizations,” Vice President of Access Services Milo Medin wrote on Google’s blog. “We’ve found this in Kansas City.”

Regarding the remaining towns and cities that were not chosen, Google has indicated Kansas City is simply a start to a long term project. They plan on wiring other cities in the future.

What everyone is missing

We discussed the new city and had suspected Kansas City would be a huge PR move on Google’s part given that Sprint is headquartered (guess where) in none other than Kansas City.

Google’s offer must have been pretty sweet to get the mayor to cheerlead for it given Sprint’s presence. Traditional and digital media have missed this fact which we believe is a tremendous part of why Google chose the city.