Is Google Fiber Flopping in Kansas City
September 15, 2012
Business Insider recently reported on Google’s new super high speed Internet and cable TV service in the article “A Lot of Kansas City Residents are Not Signing Up for Google Fiber.”
According to the article, despite the fact that half the eligible neighborhoods in Kansas City showed interest in signing up for Google Fiber, now that the Gigabit Internet service has been officially launched these same “Fiberhoods” are not following through.
Google’s plan of only building a service for areas that really wanted it seemed like a smart idea. However, a few weeks before the pre-registration process was complete, only half of the available neighborhoods had signed up. So rather than deciding against going ahead with the service, Google chose to adjust the the goals to make it easier for Fiberhoods to qualify.
The article states:
“The net result is that more neighborhoods may become eligible to get Google Fiber. But it also points to another simple thought: a surprisingly large number of Kansas City residents aren’t interested.
There’s been a lot of discussion about how Google will turn this project into a nationwide service and that it could cost hundreds of billions of dollars to do that. If Kansas City doesn’t show a lot of love for it, it’s going to be hard to convince Google, or other cable companies, to make that kind of investment.”
We find this report puzzling. Our assumption was that Google would slam dunk the other broadband providers. It seems unusual to turn down a Googley deal.
Jasmine Ashton, September 15, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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One Response to “Is Google Fiber Flopping in Kansas City”
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I live in KC. I believe that 90% of the fiberhoods have qualified. The fiberhoods that didn’t qualify are poorer neighborhoods and Google is going to go back to these neighborhoods to address issues of digital divide. The feeling here is that Google has been successful.