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Christopher Dawson

Google starts laying high-speed fiber in Kansas City

By | February 7, 2012, 3:38pm PST

Summary: Google has started laying down fiber for its much-awaited super-fast Google Fiber Internet service in Kansas City.

After almost a year of planning, mapping and “way too much barbecue,” Google has announced that it’s finally ready to start laying fiber in Kansas City, Kansas and Kansas City, Missouri and create the backbone for its long-awaited high-speed Internet service.

The two Kansas Cities found themselves the envy of the world in late March 2011 (Kansas City, Kansas was selected first, with the project’s scope later expanding into Missouri), when Google announced that they would be the test market for the Google Fiber urban infrastructure project. Google boasts that its fiber network will be 100 times faster than what the majority of American consumers have access to today.

According to the official blog post, Google is first building out a solid fiber network, laying out thousands of miles of cable across the Kansas City area. Each cable is comprised of thin fibers, about the width of a human hair. When the cables are weaved together, they’ll form the aforementioned backbone of Google Fiber service in Kansas City. Once that spine is in place, then Google says it can focus on extending service into Kansas City citizens’ homes.

Google is promising further updates as the project progresses. And there’s still no word one way or the other if the Google Fiber project includes low-cost cable television service, too. We’ll keep watching for more on Google Fiber.

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Matthew has written about consumer and personal technology for The New York Daily News and comic book culture for ComicMix.com.

Disclosure

Matt Weinberger

Matt Weinberger has no financial investments in the companies he covers.

Biography

Matt Weinberger

Matthew also covers software as a service (SaaS), cloud computing and recurring revenue models for the IT channel at TalkinCloud.com and MSPmentor.net. He has written about consumer and personal technology for The New York Daily News and comic book culture for ComicMix.com. Matthew is a graduate of the Stony Brook University School of Journalism.

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RE: Google starts laying high-speed fiber in Kansas City
opcom 8th Feb
Dear Writer, please impress me, not by repeating a nebulous Google claim of 100x faster than what most consumers have today, but with a hard number that you have found out by research. If I have to go digging for it, what is the point?

If the fiber is at least 10 megabits up and down, then it is OK. 20 would be more than adequate, 100 megabits each way, at my home, would impress me.
Topeka didn't get it, eh?

And the article announcing Kansas City won the competition didn't get nearly enough time on the front page of ZDNet, because I missed it and there's no comments on it. Did it even make the front page of ZDNet at all? That would've been a great article for the front page.

ZDNet is messed up. I'm disappointed.
Dude, the entire state of Vermont is getting fiber. http://vermontel.com/wireless-open-world
@proscriptus Vermont = 70% paid for by the Federal gov't. Is this how Google is doing it? I doubt it.
Dear Writer, please impress me, not by repeating a nebulous Google claim of 100x faster than what most consumers have today, but with a hard number that you have found out by research. If I have to go digging for it, what is the point?

If the fiber is at least 10 megabits up and down, then it is OK. 20 would be more than adequate, 100 megabits each way, at my home, would impress me.

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