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Google Fiber enters application to offer television service in Kansas City

Google Fiber enters application to offer television service in Kansas City

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The Wall Street Journal reports that Google has entered a filing to get permission to offer a video service alongside its new 1Gbps fiber internet initiative in Kansas City, KS and MO. It's rumored that should the application go through the service would be offered some time this year.

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Google TV Fiber Kansas City
Google TV Fiber Kansas City

Residents of Kansas City (both the one in Missouri and in Kansas) are already pretty lucky — Google announced last year that the cities would be its testbed for an affordable new fiber internet service that offered speeds up to 1Gbps. Now it looks like Google's darling cities are going to be the spot for another new service as well: an at-home video service to compete with cable and satellite operators. According to The Wall Street Journal, the search giant has entered an application to the Missouri Public Service to gain permission to offer such a service later this year, and its expected that Google would make a similar request in Kansas.

A fiber video service from Google is far from confirmed — a spokesperson told the paper that "we're still exploring what product offerings will be available when we launch Google Fiber" — it would fit in rather well with other moves Google has made recently. Not only does Google have its own Google TV platform which is still in its infancy, but it also now owns one of the largest cable box manufacturers — Motorola Mobility. Of course, Google is an advertiser that would likely be comfortable selling video ads for such a service, and it's also a content provider with its relatively new $100 million push to offer original programming on YouTube. The New York Post also speculates that Google's plans to build a huge satellite farm in Iowa would give it the infrastructure to offer a cable-like video service in Kansas City.