KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Ten months ago, Google made the exciting announcement that Kansas City, Kansas would be the first in the nation to get its super high speed internet. Google also said the fiber lines would be up and running by now, but there seems to be a hold up.
The one gigabit is touted to be roughly 100 times faster than most high speed internet. Google might have thought it could all this going at Google Speed. Some snags have slowed down Google’s plans.
Being the first means KCK would be the first ones to work at all the bugs.
“Anytime you start a new start up opportunity like this there are challenges,” said Dennis Hays. “The Google team is working with bpu and the Unified Government have done a good job working through those technical challenges.”
The technical challenges Google and Wyandotte County’s BPU are working on is where the place Google’s fiber lines and what the cost will be.
The agreement with Google said they would place their fiber lines near the electrical wires for free. Payback for Google offering free internet to schools and city offices. The problem is that installing the fiber line near power lines is tricky and requries more highly skilled and more expensive workers.
“Naturally, if once you get closer to the electrical you want skilled craftsmen being a part of it because there are safety issues,” said David Mehlhaff with BPU.
BPU isn’t in a fight with Google. It’sabout working with Google to find the most cost effective solution.
“Anytime you have an economic development program especially one of this magnitude and we’ve set the bar high as we’re setting it there’s a lot of final details that need to be worked out,” Mehlhaff said.
In Kansas city, Mo., some of those details were worked out before the announcement was even made that Google was expanding to KCMO. KCPL says it never considered offering Google space near the electrical lines because of the tecnichal challenges. Both KCMO and KCK say there is no dealy. Google fiber is moving forward as planned.
“That’s where we are working through the design and technical issues so we can roll into construction in the next two months,”
A Google spokesperson told FOX 4 that it’s on track to offer Google fiber to customers in the first half of 2012. She stresses that the working relationship with both KCK and KCMO are great. It’s just that this is a big project and they want to make sure they get all the details right as they start building the fiber network.
