Google Inc (GOOG): The Fiber Invasion Grows … Hide Your Kansans!

Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) is coming. Google is coming. Google is coming. Kansas City just couldn’t hold it any longer – the Google Fiber experiment is spreading, and it’s possible that the entire state of Kansas could be under “threat” of the gigabyte.

Yes, Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) Fiber has been experimented with in Kansas City for the last several months, and the company announced a few weeks ago that it had plans to expand its ultra-high-speed fiber optic internet and TV service into Austin, Texas, and Provo, Utah, in the next year. In the meantime, though, the charmingly named “Fiberhoods” will be expanding outside of Kansas City proper and will soon be offered in some new, smaller markets in Kansas as part of Google experiments with gigabyte-per-second fiber-optic broadband service – reportedly up to 100 times faster than any current broadband in the U.S.

Sergey Brin

The latest cities to join the “Fiberhood” are Shawnee and Raytown, Kan., which both have moved steps closer to having Google Fiber offered to households in those communities. This week, Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) announced that the Shawnee City Council unanimously approved a deal to bring the fiber-optic network into the city, and Raytown officials said this week they have agreed to a tentative deal with Google to bring the service to their hamlet, with a vote on the deal expected later this month.

Image: Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)

As with experimental projects like Google Fiber, it is hard to determine how soon Google will install its network and have it operational, as that seems to depend on the infrastructure that currently exists and how much prep work Google has already accomplished. We recall that once Kansas City approved the inaugural Google Fiber project, the switch was turned on within a matter of weeks, so it’s possible that Shawnee could be in business as easily as the summer.

Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) is clearly taking its time with this Google Fiber experiment, especially with ensuring the infrastructure is in place and that Google can offer the service at a low price point (reportedly lower than existing cable and internet providers) while providing internet and broadband speeds that resemble what is available in much of Europe and Asia.

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