August 8, 2023
Kansas City — Google Fiber’s first city — keeps pushing forward
What a year it’s been for Google Fiber in Kansas City!
On July 26, we celebrated our 11th “launchiversary” of sign ups in KCK and KCMO. I remember that day well, as the first employee in and can’t believe how much we’ve grown over the last decade plus.
We started in a few neighborhoods, and now cover a majority of the KC metro area. In the past year alone, we announced expansion Parkville, Liberty, Riverside, and, just yesterday, Independence. This adds to the portfolio of Kansas City communities that benefit from our award-winning internet.
Kansas City has also been paving the way for Google Fiber’s new multigig products - 5 Gig launched here on Valentine’s Day, making KC customers the first to have access. Additionally, UMKC’s School of Computing and Engineering are field testing 20 Gig speeds (read more about how they are using that to power real-time 3D development and reimagine the power of virtual reality).
Since the very beginning, we’ve worked with local organizations to make an impact across our community.Over the past year, we’ve upgraded service to the WWI Museum and Memorial to help them manage a major KC event (spoiler alert: they decided to keep the 5 Gig) andhelped America’s National Negro Leagues Baseball Museum tell its story and expand its legacy to an even wider audience. ; Our 2022-23 KC Digital Inclusion Fellow, Erika García Reyes of Revolución Educativa, helped nonprofit professionals boost digital equity in our community.
We’ve also worked with many incredible partners on digital equity issues: PCs for People provided laptops for more than 70 residents within the Urban Neighborhood Initiative and our existing Gigabit Communities
KU Center for Digital Inclusion, in partnership with UMKC, provided a digital navigator who will hold office hours at public libraries and community centers to help support and build digital literacy skills for women leaving incarceration in the KC metro area
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| KU's Center for Digital Inclusion accepts the Excellence in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Award from the University Economic Development Association |
Guadalupe Centers Inc.’s Workforce Development efforts and its new Adult Education mobile computer lab which provides devices with internet connectivity, along with basic and intermediate digital literacy training, Grow with Google, and technical support to help clients make full use of digital devices and the internet, as well as ESL classes and job placement. The mobile computer lab will launch this month.
As we enter our 12th year, we will continue to invest in the community and infrastructure of Kansas City.