KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — After seeing Facebook pleas and flash mobs, and even cities temporarily renaming themselves “Google,” the search engine giant said on Wednesday that it had chosen Kansas City, Kan., as the first place that will get its ultra-fast broadband network.

Google announced that the city would be the inaugural site for its “Fiber for Communities” program, which it says will be able to deliver Internet access more than 100 times faster than the home broadband connections provided by phone and cable companies across the country.

The company envisions systems that will let consumers download a high-definition, full-length feature film in less than five minutes, allow rural health clinics to send 3-D medical images over the Internet and let students collaborate with classmates around the world while watching live 3-D video of a university lecture.

Google’s service will provide Internet connections of one gigabit per second to as many as 500,000 people. It will be offered in early 2012 while the company looks at other cities.