City touts Internet speed leadStaff ReportThe high-speed service Google promises to bring to Kansas City by next year is already available throughout Chattanooga, EPB officials said Wednesday”I certainly wish Kansas City all the luck in the world trying to catch up with us because that is what they are going to have to do,” EPB Chairman Joe Ferguson said.Google’s “fiber to communities” will bring gigabit-per-second Internet speed to 500,000 people in Kansas City by 2012. EPB has laid fiber-optic lines and serves more than 24,000 households with its gigabit-per-second Internet link.Ferguson said EPB “is ahead of schedule and under budget” with its federally backed fiber-optic connections for both its electricity grid and telecommunications services.”We already have the fastest Internet speed of any city in America through EPB and we’re pretty much already where Google wants to take Kansas City,” said Richard Beeland, a spokesman for Mayor Ron Littlefield. “And we didn’t have to rename our city, or sell our dignity to get it.”
KANSAS CITY, Kan. – After seeing Facebook pleas and flash mobs, and even cities temporarily renaming themselves “Google,” the search engine giant said Wednesday it has chosen Kansas City, Kan., as the first place that will get its new ultra-fast broadband network.
Google announced that the city would be the inaugural site for its “fiber for communities” program, which it says will be capable of delivering Internet access more than 100 times faster than the home broadband connections provided by phone and cable companies across the U.S.
The company envisions systems that will let consumers to download a high-definition, full-length feature film in less than five minutes, allow rural health clinics to send 3-D medical images over the Internet and let students collaborate with classmates around the world while watching live 3-D video of a university lecture.
Google’s service, which will provide Internet connections of 1 gigabit per second to as many as 500,000 people, will be offered in early 2012 while the company looks at other communities across the country.