Google's FTTH pilot inspires developers to come up with bandwidth hungry apps

While it might be hard to imagine how consumers could use 1 Gbps worth of broadband from Google's (Nasdaq: GOOG) upcoming Fiber to the Home (FTTH) build in Kansas City, Mo., Think Big Partners, a technology incubator, believes there are plenty of untapped applications that can fit that bill.

Think Big Partners wants developers of bandwidth-hungry applications to come up with new services that can chew up the 1 Gbps pipe. The incubator announced the Gigabit Challenge, which will gather ideas about new applications that users can run over the proposed 1 Gbps network and award $200,000 in cash and services for the most innovative ideas, including $100,000 for the best idea.

"It will give you a jump start to help you with your great idea to get better, and get better faster," said Tyler Prochnow, a founder of Think Big in a Kansas City Star article.

Google is not the only FTTH provider in Kansas City.

Despite all of the attention the Google FTTH pilots in both the Kansas City, Mo. and Stanford, Calif. markets have garnered in the media, local telco SureWest is also aggressively expanding its FTTH network in Kansas City, Mo. As of the beginning of June, SureWest reported it had passed 11,600 homes with fiber since 2009 and is planning on connected an additional 5,000 homes to its FTTH network in Olathe, Kan.

For more:
- Kansas City Star has this article

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