Want Google's Ultra High-Speed Broadband? Move to Kansas City, Kansas

Last year, Google announced that it would bring ultra high-speed broadband Internet to one community in the United States. After a long decision process, the search giant today finally revealed which community will be the first to enjoy Google-sponsored Internet access that’s more than 100 times faster than the U.S. average. Out of the 1,100 cities that applied for Google’s so-called “Fibre for Communities program, Topeka, Kansas probably went the furthest in attracting Google’s attention by renaming itself Google, Kansas. That was not enough, though, and Google today announced that it chose Kansas City, Kansas instead.

Google plans to start offering its fibre-based high-speed broadband service there in 2012. The company has already signed a development agreement with the city, but it still needs to get formal approval from the city’s Board of Commissioners.

When Google first announced this project in 2010, it said that it wanted to do this as an experiment to see what the “killer apps” for an ultra high-speed network would be and test how to deploy these networks on a large scale.