If this news about high-speed internet access from Google sounds a little bit familiar, that’s because we shared in April what today is officially happening: Google today announced on its Google Fiber blog that a version of its gigabit-speed Google Fiber for small business is rolling out in Kansas City. The city is home to one of the first test market locations (Provo and Austin are the others) for the type of high-speed internet fiber network we’ve tracked during the past several months. Up until this announcement, the Google Fiber service was limited to residential users.
The fiber-enabled “gigabit speed” internet access is up to 100-times faster than today’s average broadband speeds, says Google. The Google Fiber service is priced at $100 for Kansas City small businesses lucky enough to be located in the right “fiberhoods” (their word, not ours).
“Earlier this year, we started a pilot in Kansas City to learn more about what business owners need. We heard from documentary filmmakers, flower shops, web development agencies, and more. All of these small businesses have a lot of ideas on how a faster Internet connection could speed up their entire business — we can’t wait to see what they do with Google Fiber,” said Carlos Casas, Google Fiber’s team manager in Kansas City.
Google says it doesn’t have specific plans for small businesses in other cities right now.