Google: 180 Kansas City neighborhoods qualify for Fiber TV service

September 10, 2012 | By Steve Donohue

Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) said Sunday that 180 of 202 neighborhoods in the Kansas City area have met preregistration requirements needed to receive its Google Fiber TV service when it launches next year.

The company--which plans to charge $120 monthly for cable programming, a DVR with 2 terabytes of storage capacity and a high-speed Internet connection offering speeds up to 1 gigabit per second--said it will finalize the list of the first "fiberhoods" that will receive the product on Thursday.

"This number has blown us away--and it's not even the final tally," Google Access general manager Kevin Lo wrote in a blog post Sunday about the Google Fiber TV preregistrations.

Kansas City incumbent providers Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) and AT&T (NYSE: T) will face stiff competition when Google flips the switch on the Fiber TV and wideband Internet service. Google has said it will offer free Internet access (after a $300 construction fee) to homes in the Kansas City area at speeds offered by current providers.

Several neighborhoods the Kansas City area have already seen more than 30 percent of homes preregister for Google Fiber TV, which suggests that Time Warner Cable and AT&T could face significant subscriber churn in the area. Lo said that Google plans to conduct another registration rally next year for neighborhoods that haven't yet qualified to receive Google Fiber TV.

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