K.C. is Google’s ultra-fast choice

March 31, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

McClatchy Newspapers

KANSAS CITY, Kan.

Google said Wednesday it will make Kansas City its first site for its ultra-fast broadband network.

The service, which doesn’t have a price yet, is intended to offer Internet speeds as high as one gigabit. Google says that’s about 100 times faster than most Americans have now.

More than 1,000 cities across the United States campaigned to be Google’s first site. Google plans to offer service beginning in the first quarter of 2012.

“The entire country is going to be watching what happens here,” said Milo Medin, Google’s vice president for access services.

The news stirred hundreds of giddy onlookers to their feet Wednesday at Wyandotte High School, where many had gathered to hear the surprise announcement. Local, state and federal dignitaries were beaming with possibilities.

“As governor of this state, I’m declaring today Google Day in Kansas,” said Kansas Governor Sam Brownback.

The transition for the users will be similar to the conversion from dial-up to broadband, Medin said.

“We wanted to find a location where we could build quickly and efficiently. Kansas City has great infrastructure, and Kansas has a great business-friendly environment,” Medin said.

Many were left wondering exactly what the decision means for the average user. Though there are massive implications for health care, economic development and education, it will be up to businesses and the public to consider the possibilities.

“You put a brand-new tool out there, and you say, ‘Come play with it,’” Brownback said.

Schools, as well as other public locations, will be able to use the service for free. Kansas City Public Schools Superintendent Cynthia Lane said the difference will be immediate, especially at the districts’ high schools, where every child has a laptop.

“My mind is racing,” said Pat Brune, president of Leadership 2000, a group that aims to develop community leaders. Brune also is retired after 31 years with the U.S. District Court in Western Missouri. “I am a product of U.S.D. 500 (the Kansas City school district), and the way they can use this in the school will be absolutely amazing.”

Brune said in the mid-1990s she was part of the initiative to make the court one of the first in the country that could take electronic filings.

“I understand the opportunities that new technology brings even when you can’t define what that opportunity might be,” she said. “It is exactly as our speakers said today: ‘Let us play with it. We can make it be something amazing.’”

Brune said the new service will let Leadership 2000 bring all the neighborhood groups together to discuss issues instantly.

“The power is almost staggering to think about,” Brune said. “The way governments can use it. The way communities can use it. The way individuals and schools can use it. Goodness gracious, it will be amazing. And with all due humility, (Kansas City) deserves to be first.”

Google said it will work closely with local organizations, including the Kauffman Foundation and the University of Kansas Medical Center.

Company officials also said they would educate people on computer and broadband use as well as let third parties offer their own services on the network.

Competition to become the pilot city for the service was fierce. Topeka, Kan., even changed its name to Google for a month last year.

The announcement finally came at noon Wednesday amid a thick fog of secrecy. Before that, Wyandotte County officials said little more than they would have an announcement with national implications.

The Google logo on the podium and white tents outside that stood empty except for big blocks in the Google colors of red, blue, green and yellow gave a hint. But just an hour before the announcement, even some dignitaries at Wyandotte High School were still trying to get early word what the news would be.

Officials who did know signed nondisclosure agreements, said Mike Taylor, spokesman for the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City.