Aside from the obvious, how does gigabit Internet benefit cities?

The immediate benefits of bringing gigabit Internet to a city are obvious: people in the city now have fast Internet. However, there’s much more to it than that. Just look at Kansas City, the first city in the United States to get Google Fiber. Not only have Internet speeds increased for people in the city, Google Fiber is starting to attract new businesses and inspire new projects in Kansas City. 

Kansas City was very lucky to be the first city to get Google Fiber and we’re not talking just about the 1Gbps Internet service. NextCity has taken a look at some of the side benefits that Kansas City is reaping thanks to being the first Google Fiber city in America and they show just how great it can be to be the first major city in the U.S. to get a high-speed fiber network. The most obvious thing Google Fiber has done for Kansas City is spur incumbents like AT&T to up their game and offer 1Gbps Internet services of their own. This competition is the envy of many cities around the U.S. that only have one choice when it comes to broadband providers, and none of those providers offer anything in the range of 1Gbps.