Scott Canon
Overland Park appears set to sign on for Google Fiber
Well, it appears that Google Fiber will finally arrive in Overland Park (KS). The Overland Park City Council is poised to approve two agreements that would allow the California-based tech giant to bring super-high-speed Internet to the city.
The proposals are similar to ones presented last September, but action on those was delayed.
“Everything appears to be in order. We have been ready to deal with Google for several months now, so I am looking forward to it,” said Councilman David White. “We’ve wanted it all along, and if this can be pulled off it will be a good thing for Overland Park and for the citizens. I think they will all be happy.”
Under one of the agreements, Overland Park would allow Google Fiber to install network huts on city-owned property. This would enable Google Fiber to string its fiber-optic lines to neighborhoods throughout the city. The second agreement would permit Google Fiber to use the city’s existing fiber network conduit.
Within its fiberhoods, Google rules the roost
Survey results from Bernstein Research, a Wall Street research firm, suggest Google Fiber is snaring much of the customer base in the growing number of neighborhoods where it sells TV and Internet hookups.
Bernstein Research said its door-to-door survey of 350 homes found most of those new customers buy Google’s light-speed service -- paying $70 a month for more download and upload speed than they know what to do with. That may reflect the particularly broadband-hungry corners of the market surveyed by Bernstein -- some of Google’s most eager customers -- and their desire to take the 1-gigabit-per-second Internet service for a spin.
In some parts of Kansas City, Google Fiber sells Internet hook-ups to four of five homes that its network passes, Bernstein found. Bernstein’s report says wealthier neighborhoods subscribe to Google Fiber at far higher rates than poorer areas.
The research firm estimated Google will capture the business of half or more of the homes in qualified fiberhoods in three to four years. A Google spokeswoman said the company has no plans now to return to neighborhoods where it’s already completed installations.