Official Blog
The latest news from the Fiber team
Congratulations, Kansas City!
Sunday, September 09, 2012
On July 26, we kicked off a
six-week rally
to find out where you wanted us to build Google Fiber. Since then, we’ve been amazed and humbled by your excitement and commitment to the future of the Internet. Three fiberhoods reached their goals on the very first day of our
announcement
and from there, you just took off, encouraging your friends and neighbors to pre-register. The momentum has been terrific—63 fiberhoods qualified in the past week alone. From Hanover Heights, which qualified for Fiber in just two hours, to Ivanhoe Southeast, Coronado and more, which just qualified in the last few hours, your response has been tremendous.
Pre-registration just closed, and at least 180 out of 202 fiberhoods have qualified for service.
This number has blown us away—and it’s not even the final tally. We’re still processing some final address verification requests and pre-registrations from apartment buildings and condos. On Thursday we’ll share the final list of fiberhoods that have qualified for Google Fiber and the order in which they’ll be constructed, along with more details about the next steps. So stay tuned!
This rally has been the first step in working toward one of the long-term core goals of Google Fiber—increasing access to the Internet. That’s why we’re connecting libraries, schools and community buildings in qualified fiberhoods. But affordable access at home is important too. So one of the three
packages
we offer is a Free Internet plan. Homes in Kansas City can get their own Fiber connection and today’s average Internet speeds for $0 per month, plus a construction fee.
We’ve been working hard to get the word out about Google Fiber. And we’ve learned from our many conversations—spontaneously on the street and at hundreds of community events—that offering an affordable service is only one step towards increasing Internet access. In fact,
studies show
that the main reason people don’t want the Internet is that they don’t think the web is relevant. So, over the past six weeks, we’ve worked side-by-side with many amazing community organizations to try and lessen the digital divide, and spread the word that access to the Internet is an essential element of everyday life.
Together we’ve made good progress during this pre-registration period, but there’s still work to be done. Some fiberhoods won’t qualify this time around. If you live in one of those fiberhoods, we want you to know that we’ve heard your concerns. We will include you in a future rally sometime next year, when you can try to qualify for Fiber again.
We’ve been truly inspired by, and have learned so much from, the efforts of local nonprofits, community centers, libraries, schools, and churches to pre-register their neighbors. And we want to continue working with these groups as they promote digital literacy throughout the community. So going forward, we aim to support great organizations in Kansas City in a programmatic and strategic way, through grants and joint educational efforts focused on digital literacy. Together we will work to equip Kansas Citians with the knowledge and tools they need to get online and use the web to their advantage for education, job hunting and more. We’ll have more details about this program soon.
We couldn’t be more proud to be a part of this community. Thank you, Kansas City!
Posted by Kevin Lo, General Manager, Google Access
~~~~
author.name: Kevin Lo
author.title: General Manager
category: city_news
The Google Fiber blog is now located here
.
Labels
3d
Android
announcement
app
apple
April Fools
Austin
CBRS
channels
channels tv
choose dubs dread service plan
cinemax
Community Connections
Connected Communities
construction
deadlines
digital divide playbook mbit
Digital Inclusion Fund
Discovery
education
education schools students
en espanol
Español
expansion
Fiber behind the scenes
fiber poles
Fiber Space
fiber tv
fiberhood
fiberhood deadlines
fiberhoods deadlines signup
fiberhoods installation
Gladstone
Grandview
gybo
hbo
installations hanover heights
iPad
kansas
kansas city
Leawood
lee's summit
local government
Merriam
Mission
Missouri
nashville
North America
olathe
On Demand
otmr
Prairie Village
premiere
premium package
Provo
Raleigh
raytown
SAS
shawnee
sign up installation
signup
small business
spectrum
True Blood
tv
website
Archive
2019
Aug
May
Feb
Jan
2018
Nov
Oct
Jul
May
Mar
Feb
Jan
2017
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Mar
Feb
Jan
2016
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
Apr
Mar
Feb
2015
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
May
Apr
Mar
Jan
2014
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2013
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
2012
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Feb
2011
Dec
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Mar
2010
Dec
Oct
Jul
Mar
Feb
Feed
Follow @googlefiber
Follow
Follow