People of Kansas City, Kansas rejoice that Google has picked you to be the very first in the nation to be a part of its gigabit fiber initiative.
Nearly 1,100 cities petitioned to Google to be the city, including Topeka, Kansas, which changed its name to Google in hopes of wooing the search company's heart. While Google picked within Kansas, it wasn't the town of Google that got the nod.
"After a careful review, today we’re very happy to announce that we will build our ultra high-speed network in Kansas City, Kansas," the company wrote in a blog post. "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," the post continued. "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."
Google aims to start service in 2012. Google says it will continue working on bringing gigabit fiber to other cities soon. Fingers crossed!