photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Lawrence City Hall

When Google first selected Kansas City, Kansas, as the pilot city for its new high-speed internet service, Google Fiber, back in 2011, a lot of hype surrounded the novel development.

Thirteen years later, now that city commissioners have approved a local ordinance that gives Google Fiber the ability to come into Lawrence, the level of fanfare may not be quite as extraordinary, but Brian Thomas, the IT director for the City of Lawrence, believes the development is still pretty exciting.

“I think it’s a good thing Google is coming to town,” Thomas said.

Thomas said he had some working relationships with the Google Fiber team when he worked previously in Kansas City, Missouri. Thomas said Google approached Lawrence first about attempting to expand the operations into the city, and the familiarity with the team helped both the city and Google approve the process quickly.

With the rapid expansion of the Kansas City-metro area, including the $4 billion Panasonic electric vehicle battery factory in De Soto, Thomas said the company really wanted to expand into the city in anticipation of further growth.

“They know Lawrence is a growing and vibrant city and wanted to put their footprint here,” Thomas said.

While Google starts working on building its fiber optic cable network in the city, Lawrence residents won’t have access overnight to the 1 gigabit speed the company offers, Thomas said, but it’s anticipated that Google could start offering its services in about two years.

As part of an agreement with the City of Lawrence, Google would pay the city $4.20 per quarter, per resident subscriber, with slightly higher rates for businesses that end up subscribing to Google Fiber. That means the city would get about $16.80 per year from each household that signs up for the internet service once it’s online.

Thomas said, with some back-of-the-napkin math, if 20% of households sign up, that could add anywhere between $150,000 and $300,000 per year. And the increase in competition for internet services — right now Midco and AT&T are the other internet service providers in Lawrence — can be a huge advantage for consumers.

Thomas also said there can be other ways the city can leverage its ties with Google. With the name-recognition of the tech company and its reputation of being an innovator, Thomas feels like its presence can be a huge boon for Lawrence.

“I think there are partnership opportunities with KU, for businesses, for the city itself. We certainly want to leverage that,” Thomas said.