Google is not bringing its super fast internet to upstate New York.
On Wednesday, the internet giant announced that Kansas City, Mo. Kan. will be the site of its experimental "Fiber for Communities" project.
Driadonna Roland at the Democrat and Chronicle reports that Rochester's Monroe County - which threw its hat in the ring for the optical fiber network - is bummed that it didn't work out:
"We all pulled together to make this happen, but we fell short. It's disappointing," [city spokesman Gary] Walker said. "But it wasn't for a lack of trying."
However, Craig Settles over at GigaOM reports that Rochester and other losing communities might have reason to remain optimistic:
In Google’s blog today about Kansas City is this statement: “We’ll also be looking closely at ways to bring ultra high-speed Internet to other cities across the country.” Sounds like Google isn’t finished yet. And that’s a good thing.
For now at least, the people over at this local Facebook group must be pretty disappointed about the news.
Rural broadband
A group of three Southern Tier counties had also applied for the Google project. But when it became clear that the Google money wasn't going to come through, they got help from Corning Incorporated instead.
Keep an ear out for more on this story. As part of New York State Public Radio's "State of Disrepair" series, we'll have a feature coming out soon on broadband in the Southern Tier.
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