Google has just announced another expansion of their Fiber service – one that’s pretty close to “home base.”
Home base being Kansas City, the location of Google’s Fiber’s first installment. The next town to be blessed with Google’s super-fast internet is Shawnee, Kansas, which is located south-west of Kansas City. Google won’t have to expand their service that far to accomodate the people of Shawnee.
“Shawnee, which is right outside of Kansas City, is known as a tight-knit community and a great place to do business. We’ve also been impressed by Shawnee’s vision to keep their citizens informed and involved using the Internet. Recently, the City modernized their website, so that locals can easily access city info—from crime maps to fiscal reports to streamed audio of city council meetings.
This is a great example of how access to information via the web can help make communities stronger. Google Fiber—and widespread connectivity throughout Shawnee—will be a great complement to the great work the City is already doing,” says Google Fiber Community Manager Rachel Hack.
Google says that they don’t yet have an estimate on when things will get underway.
Today’s announcement comes during a period of many expansion announcement for Google Fiber. Last month, Google announced that Fiber would we coming to Austin, Texas by mid-2014. Less than two weeks later, it was Provo, Utah that was added to the list.
On the heels of Google’s 1Gbps advances, other ISPs have announced plans to up their game. We’ve just recently seen ISPs in Vermont and Tennessee detail plans for Gigabit internet. Not to be outdone, AT&T has also announced plans to build a 1Gbps Fiber network in Austin. Call it the Google Fiber effect, but it has people thinking. And acting.
[Image via Facebook]