Almost five years since super-fast Google Fiber internet came to town, KC is a tech hub on the rise Normally, internet installation doesn?t warrant a worldwide press event.
But in 2012, when Matthew Marcus, current executive director of the Kansas City Startup Foundation, had his home wired for Google Fiber, one of the first places in the world the internet giant was unveiling its revolutionary 1-gigabit internet connection, the service call became a media frenzy.
?We were mesmerized by what they were doing,? he says. ?When they connected, we literally went from 4G wireless to 1,000 megabits. The difference was night and day; we even filmed speed tests for YouTube, which we called Fiber Fridays.?
Like his colleagues, Marcus was thrilled Google had chosen Kansas City for the trial. He was working out of the Kansas City Startup Village, an entrepreneur-led community of small companies working out of a network of converted homes. Like others in the tech industry, he was thrilled by the promise of Google?s foray into lightning-fast broadband. When the internet giant announced its intentions and put out an open call for cities to apply for Fiber, more than 1,000 responded. State rival Topeka even temporarily changed its name to Google. Anything, the thinking went, to get in on what was sure to be a huge economic boost.

Jill Toyoshiba/Kansas City Star/MCT via Getty Images
Matthew Marcus during Google Fiber installation at his home in 2012.

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