90% of KC 'Fiberhoods' Meet Google Fiber Deadline

KANSAS CITY, KS and KANSAS CITY, MO - Six weeks ago, Google Fiber kicked off a competition (or, to use Google's term, a rally) among neighborhoods in the two Kansas Cities to preregister for fiber-to-the-home services. Google said it would build out first in the neighborhoods (or fiberhoods, in Google-speak) that showed the strongest demand for services. Preregistering neighborhoods for services is a standard technique used by fiber overbuilders in the U.S. and Europe, but Google raised the technique to an art form.

The process hasn't been entirely smooth. For one thing, address verification for multifamily housing turned out to be more complicated than Google had anticipated. In addition, as we predicted in July, reaching registration goals in low-income neighborhoods proved challenging. To address this challenge, Google worked with community organizations to educate potential customers about what Internet access could mean for them.

However, the good news - actually, excellent news - is that response to the Google offering has been very strong. By yesterday, at the end of the six-week rally, 180 out of 202 fiberhoods had reached the minimum preregistration levels for Google to begin connecting customers. The number may be even higher by Thursday, once Google finishes tallying up the MDU registrations. And the remaining fiberhoods will be eligible to hold another preregistration drive in 2013. So it appears that gigabit fiber to the home will soon be widely available throughout the two Kansas Cities.