In Kansas City, few poor people, renters sign up for Google Fiber | Nancy Scola | WashPost.com

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The promise behind Google’s ambitious Google Fiber project has always been a twofer. One, that people who were already on the Internet would upgrade to blazingly-fast 1-gigabit service that is a hundred times more robust than average U.S. broadband connections. And two, that people who weren’t already online would be attracted to the company’s slower but inexpensive service made possible by the new fiber optic cable running through their cities.

But the latter, according to those on the ground and some new research, isn’t happening in Google Fiber’s flagship city of Kansas City. The company’s efforts to drive down the cost of broadband isn’t yet working in some of the city’s most challenged neighborhoods.

Troost Avenue has traditionally served as Kansas City’s racial and economic dividing line. According to new data from the research firm Haynes & Co. commissioned by The Wall Street Journal, only 10 percent of households in six low-income neighborhoods east of Troost in Kansas City, Mo., are subscribed to Google Fiber, its ultra-high-speed, $70 package.

More surprisingly, just 5 percent of households in those neighborhoods opted for Google Fiber’s so-called “Free Internet” option: a respectable 5 megabit-per-second option that, after a $300 installation fee, is no-cost for seven years.

Google points out that over the long haul, the “Free Internet” option saves consumers $900 over the cost of regular broadband Internet service, and that the installation fee is payable in a year of monthly installments of $25. But compared to not paying for Internet service at all, those fees represent considerable sums.

Google’s low-cost option was particularly unpopular in the city’s large rental market, said Internet advocates there. For renters, including those who might move around a lot, the $300 was a sunk cost, that adds to the already high cost of being a renter. Moreover, those living in apartment buildings were dependent on landlords to pick up the tab. For a 100-unit building, that means a $30,000 one-time outlay.

 

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Source: www.washingtonpost.com

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