VCU may have toppled the Kansas Jayhawks, but Kansas City, Kan. vanquished Richmond and 1,100 other localities in the battle over Google Fiber.
According to several news reports this week, Kansas City has been chosen as the test spot for Google’s Fiber for Communities, an experimental broadband network that would deliver data at speeds of more than 1 gigabit per second, more than 100 times faster than the typical fiber connections today.
Read a New York Times report on the winner here.
The contest began last spring when Google unveiled the idea asking localities to make their best pitch for why Google should build the network in their backyard.
More than 1,100 cities made bids, according to Google, including 41 municipalities in Virginia. And that included pitting the City of Richmond, Chesterfield County, Hanover County and several other nearby counties against one another.
BizSense reported on Richmond’s campaign to lure Google here last March when Richmond Mayor Dwight Jones at the time likened winning the contest to the “technological equivalent of being awarded the Olympics.”
Read the original story here.
A video was also produced at the time to make the case for Richmond. Watch it here.
Some cities went to extremes to catch Google’s attention.
Topeka, Kan. drew plenty of attention last spring when it changed its name to Google, Kansas for a month.
The drive to land Google Fiber even caused the mayor of Duluth, Minn. to jump half naked into the ice-cold Lake Superior.
According to a report Wednesday from the Johnson County Sun in Kansas, the winner was chosen based on having the best potential to build the network efficiently and have an impact on the chosen community.
The Sun article, which can be read in its entirety here, said Google plans to offer the service beginning in 2012.
VCU may have toppled the Kansas Jayhawks, but Kansas City, Kan. vanquished Richmond and 1,100 other localities in the battle over Google Fiber.
According to several news reports this week, Kansas City has been chosen as the test spot for Google’s Fiber for Communities, an experimental broadband network that would deliver data at speeds of more than 1 gigabit per second, more than 100 times faster than the typical fiber connections today.
Read a New York Times report on the winner here.
The contest began last spring when Google unveiled the idea asking localities to make their best pitch for why Google should build the network in their backyard.
More than 1,100 cities made bids, according to Google, including 41 municipalities in Virginia. And that included pitting the City of Richmond, Chesterfield County, Hanover County and several other nearby counties against one another.
BizSense reported on Richmond’s campaign to lure Google here last March when Richmond Mayor Dwight Jones at the time likened winning the contest to the “technological equivalent of being awarded the Olympics.”
Read the original story here.
A video was also produced at the time to make the case for Richmond. Watch it here.
Some cities went to extremes to catch Google’s attention.
Topeka, Kan. drew plenty of attention last spring when it changed its name to Google, Kansas for a month.
The drive to land Google Fiber even caused the mayor of Duluth, Minn. to jump half naked into the ice-cold Lake Superior.
According to a report Wednesday from the Johnson County Sun in Kansas, the winner was chosen based on having the best potential to build the network efficiently and have an impact on the chosen community.
The Sun article, which can be read in its entirety here, said Google plans to offer the service beginning in 2012.