Unofficially, anyway.
Google is awarding some lucky bidding city the fabulous prize of ultra high-speed broadband, and Topeka wants to win. The city is renaming themselves "Google, Kansas -- The Capital City of Fiber" in the hopes that having a namesake will attract the company's attention.
Google is offering to install the experimental fiber for free, but they plan on charging for access. Even with that caveat, the project could attract skilled jobs and higher property values to any city lucky enough to win the bid. Topeka's temporary and unofficial name change will last for the month of March.
Meanwhile, Duluth, MN made a tongue-in-cheek counter- offer to rename the city's children "Google Fiber."
In the interest of disclosure, I live in Kansas, but not Topeka. My city is also applying for Google's fiber network, but they haven't offered to rename anything.
perhaps the best reason to bring google high speed internet access to topeka would be to break the monopoly that the city has allowed cox communications to maintain on it’s citizens. it seems that at least 3-4 times a year, our cox bill goes up – and not with any extra service for that money – if anything, they take programing away without notice, and with no resultant reduction in cable rates. there HAS to be a better, more fair way to do business. att is here with fiber optic cable, but it is very limited in it’s service areas. it runs through the parking in front of our house, and has been there for several years now, but we cannot access it, while other areas near us, can.
Mark, I too, live in Topeka and have wondered about the COX monopoly. In my neighborhood (29th and Burlingame) there is a fully loaded Cox truck, parked in front of the house owned by the Cox employee who the truck is checked out to. It is there when I leave for work in the AM. It is there when I come home in the PM. If I drive by in the middle of the day, it is there. Basically, it is there all the time. No one seems concerned about that except for me. I (and you) are paying for that truck to sit there 24/7. Amazes me.
I live in Wichita, and wish to god Google would come here. I’m well tired of Cox, but that’s what there is in this state, pretty much.
Hey!
Don’t you folks have satellite access there?
If not, what an opportunity.
Cox Monopoly?
Is that like Microsoft?
grin