Google Fiber is expanding its footprint in Kansas. After planting roots in Kansas City, Google is now taking its high-speed Internet service to the Kansas City suburb of Shawnee. The move was approved by Shawnee's city council on Thursday.
Google doesn't charge the cities where it installs Google Fiber anything — it simply asks city councils to allow the company to do its work without getting bogged down in bureaucracy.
Google has not yet announced when Shawnee residents would be able to sign up for Fiber servicers. Google Fiber for consumers starts at $0 per month for the first seven years after a $300 installation fee and goes up to $120 per month for a 1 gigabit/second connection.
Rachel Hack, community manager for Google Fiber, posted this message on the Google Fiber blog:
"This evening, the Shawnee City Council voted to bring Google Fiber to their city.
Shawnee, which is right outside of Kansas City, is known as a tight-knit community and a great place to do business. We've also been impressed by Shawnee's vision to keep their citizens informed and involved using the Internet. Recently, the City modernized their website, so that locals can easily access city info-from crime maps to fiscal reports to streamed audio of city council meetings.
This is a great example of how access to information via the web can help make communities stronger. Google Fiber-and widespread connectivity throughout Shawnee-will be a great complement to the great work the City is already doing.
We still have a lot of planning and engineering work to do before we're ready to bring Fiber to Shawnee, so we don't have an estimate for when service will be available yet. We'll be sure to publish an update here as soon as we have it."
