Is Google planning to offer IP video to Kansas City?
Does Google want to provide some kind of IP video service for the people of Kansas City, Kansas and Kansas City, Missouri? We've heard the rumors. Here's another hint that they may be true after all: the Federal Communications Commission has received and reviewed an application from Google Fiber for a fixed satellite, receive-only earth station to be located in Council Bluffs, Iowa—about 200 miles northwest of the two Kansas cities. And Google Fiber is a subsidiary of Google; it's the company that is building out a 1Gbps fiber-to-the-home testbed for the location in question.
Google announced the whereabouts of its testbed experiment ten months ago. The service will provide "open access" to any Kansas City area ISP wanting to use Google's pipes, charging fees similar to current rates for slower connections in the region. Last Monday, Google's Kevin Lo noted on his Google Fiber blog that "starting today, we're ready to lay fiber."
