Kansas City, Kan., will be the first city in the nation to have Google Fiber, broadband Internet service that Google says will be 100 times faster than most Americans use today.
The announcement was made today by Mayor Joe Reardon of the Unified Government of Wyandotte County at Wyandotte High School. It also was posted on Google's blog.
Gov. Sam Brownback said the Google development would boost the University of Kansas Cancer Center's bid to gain federal designation as a National Cancer Center and also could help telemedicine services provided by the KU Medical Center, which has its main campus in Kansas City, Kan.
From Google's announcement online:
“We’ve signed a development agreement with the city, and we’ll be working closely with local organizations, businesses and universities to bring a next-generation web experience to the community. … In selecting a city, our goal was to find a location where we could build efficiently, make an impact on the community and develop relationships with local government and community organizations. We’ve found this in Kansas City. We’ll be working closely with local organizations including the Kauffman Foundation, KCNext and the University of Kansas Medical Center to help develop the gigabit applications of the future.”