Google In Kansas City

About Google in Kansas City, Missouri

What is Google doing in Kansas City?
We plan to build an ultra high-speed broadband network in Kansas City on both sides of the river. Our network will deliver Internet speeds of up to 1 gigabit (or 1,000 megabits) per second. That's more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today.

Why did Google choose Kansas City, Kansas and Kansas City, Missouri?
Nearly 1,100 communities across the country expressed interest in this project. Our goal was to find a location where we could build efficiently, make an impact on the community, and develop working partnerships with the local government, utility and community organizations. We believe we’ve found this in both Kansas City, Kansas and Kansas City, Missouri.

Does this mean Google will directly be building out networks in Kansas City?
Yes, we plan to manage the development and deployment of this network, working closely with outside vendors.

When will construction begin?
Pending city council approvals, we plan to begin our deployment process in Kansas City by the end of this year and begin offering service in the first quarter of 2012.

What areas of the community will receive the service first? Will you be bringing the service to the entire community?
We expect to deploy across all parts of the community. We'll work closely with the communities to educate people on computer and broadband usage and when we build, we'll start with and deploy in neighborhoods where people want our service.
Over the next several months, we'll be working with the city and the utility company to refine our deployment plans. We strive to be as transparent as possible and we'll continue to update our site with our deployment plans.

How much will the service cost?
We plan to offer service at a competitive price to what people are paying for Internet access today, but we haven't yet finalized any pricing.

Does Google have any local partners lined up to provide service over its open network?
We plan to give third-parties flexibility to offer their own services on top of our open network, but we don't have any partners to announce at this time.

Google in the community
Will you be hiring technicians, customer support representatives, and other staffers in the community?
It's too early to answer specific questions about staffing, but we look forward to sharing more information as we begin to develop specific plans.

What will be the economic impact of this project on the community?
We hope to have a positive impact on the community. Our goal for this project is to allow for new innovations and cutting-edge technologies to develop and grow in Kansas City. By investing in a next generation technology infrastructure, we believe this project will help drive the region’s overall economic development.

Has Google engaged with any community organizations?
Yes, Google is committed to playing an active and positive role in the community. For example, as a part of this initiative, we will be connecting local schools and other city and public locations with our Internet service.
We're just getting started in the community, so specific engagement opportunities may take us a little while. For now, you can learn more about our approach and core values or see how we normally like to engage with communities-- usually through our work donating products and services to qualified 501c3 non-profit organizations.

About Google 
Where is Google based?
Google is based in Mountain View, California, in the heart of Northern California's technology-rich Silicon Valley. Mountain View and the surrounding area is home to many of the folks who conceive and create Google's applications and innovations.

What's Google's story?
Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. Beginning in 1996, Stanford University graduate students Larry Page and Sergey Brin built a search engine called "BackRub" that used links to determine the importance of individual web pages. By 1998 they had formalized their work, creating the company you know today as Google. Since then, Google has grown by leaps and bounds. From offering search in a single language we now offer dozens of products and services—including various forms of advertising and web applications for all kinds of tasks—in scores of languages. And starting from two computer science students in a university dorm room, we now have thousands of employees and offices around the world.

How does Google make money?
The majority of Google's revenue comes from providing highly-relevant advertising to online consumers searching for information on related products and services. Google AdWords, our auction-based advertising system, allows advertisers of all sizes to reach the right customers at the right time by showing ads that are relevant to that user's searches. And best of all, advertisers only pay when someone clicks on their ad. It's a win-win situation for advertisers and consumers: Consumers see relevant ads about products and services (alongside our natural search results), and advertisers only pay when interested consumers click on their ads.

Google also makes money from products like Enterprise, Earth, Android and YouTube.

What are Google's other products?
Google offers a wide variety of Internet services such as our original search engine, maps, news and email.