Google picks Kansas City for its new gigabit fiber network

It’s taken a while, but Google has chosen a city to install its first super-fast fiber network, and the winner is: Kansas City. After reviewing applications by nearly 1,100 cities, Google chose Kansas because of its geographics and the organization and enthusiasm of its community. The search giant has signed a development agreement with the city and will “be working closely with local organizations, businesses, and universities to bring a next-generation Web experience to the community.” The new network will reach speeds of up to 1 gigabit, or 100 times today’s high speeds.

The Kauffman Foundation, KCNext, and the University of Kansas Medical Center were pointed out as institutions that will work especially close with Google. We’re wondering if Sprint’s headquarters, located around Kansas City, will get access to the new fiber network. It certainly beats WiMax.

Google first announced its plans to test out its first fiber network about a year ago, in Feb. 2010. The competition got strange too, as cities like Topeka renamed themselves to “Google, Kansas” and other cities made YouTube videos and held public rallies to try and get Google’s attention. Late last year, Milo Medin, Google’s VP of Access Services, was put in charge of the project.

A full announcement was made just a bit ago. We’ve included a video with Kansas City, Kansas officials and community leaders below.