Kansas City Star

Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley has launched an investigation into whether Google has mishandled private customer data and manipulated its search results to favor its own products and stifle competitors.

[Commentary] For several years, Kansas City has been at the forefront of a movement in the Midwest. The region was an early leader of the Silicon Prairie, showing firsthand that a thriving startup ecosystem is not the exclusive purview of the coasts. But federal regulators are about to hurt the open internet and put this growth at risk. These startups’ successes are dependent on an open internet. The rise of digital technologies has eroded boundaries: Anyone can participate, start a business and reach a global audience. Thanks to the way the internet was designed, it’s one of the most open, competitive markets we’ve ever known. Consumers can reach any site they want, without interference from the big telecom and wireless companies that provide access to the internet. This is often called “net neutrality.” But many of the incumbent internet access providers have long wanted to change the way the internet works. This sort of behavior has been kept in check because of net neutrality rules enforced by the Federal Communications Commission, but new FCC Chairman Ajit Pai plans to do away with the existing legal protections. Without net neutrality, the incumbents who provide access to the internet would be able to pick winners or losers in the market. They could impede traffic from startups’ services in order to favor their own services or established competitors. They could also impose new fees on startups, inhibiting consumer choice.

[David Cohen is the founder and co-CEO of Techstars and a serial entrepreneur.]

Well, it appears that Google Fiber will finally arrive in Overland Park (KS). The Overland Park City Council is poised to approve two agreements that would allow the California-based tech giant to bring super-high-speed Internet to the city.

The proposals are similar to ones presented last September, but action on those was delayed.

“Everything appears to be in order. We have been ready to deal with Google for several months now, so I am looking forward to it,” said Councilman David White. “We’ve wanted it all along, and if this can be pulled off it will be a good thing for Overland Park and for the citizens. I think they will all be happy.”

Under one of the agreements, Overland Park would allow Google Fiber to install network huts on city-owned property. This would enable Google Fiber to string its fiber-optic lines to neighborhoods throughout the city. The second agreement would permit Google Fiber to use the city’s existing fiber network conduit.

Survey results from Bernstein Research, a Wall Street research firm, suggest Google Fiber is snaring much of the customer base in the growing number of neighborhoods where it sells TV and Internet hookups.

Bernstein Research said its door-to-door survey of 350 homes found most of those new customers buy Google’s light-speed service -- paying $70 a month for more download and upload speed than they know what to do with. That may reflect the particularly broadband-hungry corners of the market surveyed by Bernstein -- some of Google’s most eager customers -- and their desire to take the 1-gigabit-per-second Internet service for a spin.

In some parts of Kansas City, Google Fiber sells Internet hook-ups to four of five homes that its network passes, Bernstein found. Bernstein’s report says wealthier neighborhoods subscribe to Google Fiber at far higher rates than poorer areas.

The research firm estimated Google will capture the business of half or more of the homes in qualified fiberhoods in three to four years. A Google spokeswoman said the company has no plans now to return to neighborhoods where it’s already completed installations.