Google Fiber is live in Kansas City, real-world speeds at 700 Mbps

After months of fanfare and anticipation, gigabit home Internet service Google Fiber finally went live in Kansas City. The search giant is offering 1 Gbps speeds for just $70 per month—significantly faster and cheaper than what any traditional American ISPs are offering.

"We just got it today and I’ve been stuck in front of my laptop for the last few hours," said Mike Demarais, founder of Threedee. "It’s unbelievable. I’m probably not going to leave the house." He lives in a four-bedroom house run by "Homes For Hackers" on Kansas City’s Hanover Heights neighborhood, just on the state border with Missouri. The house has become one of the hubs for the KC Startup Village, an informal group of entrepreneurs who have clustered around homes immediately eligible for Google Fiber. Meanwhile, Demarais said that on an Ethernet connection, he’s seen consistent Google Fiber speeds of 600 to 700 Mbps, with Wi-Fi topping out around 200 Mbps. Even at the slower wireless speeds, that’s more than an order of magnitude faster than what most Americans have at home.