Remember earlier this morning when we said Google Fiber was all set to make a big announcement? Turns out that they’re moving on to the next phase by allowing Kansas City citizens to pre-register between now and September 9th. If their neighborhood meets a certain quota, they’ll then receive Google Fiber access and be able to sign up for free Internet access. There are a few catches though, and a number of other amazing Internet plans.

The biggest catch here is that only Kansas City, KS and Kansas City, MO are offering Google Fiber right now. It’s where all of Google Fiber’s infrastructure is currently located and there’s no word yet on when it might come to a town near you. Another catch is that they require pre-registration, which costs $10, but also require entire neighborhoods to meet a quota to become a “fiberhood” and gain access to plans. Thirdly, the free Internet package requires a $300 installation fee.

However, that $300 fee isn’t so bad. According to the plans and pricing page, customers can either pay the $300 up front, or pay $25 per month for twelve months, which ends up being that $300. The crazy part, however, is that the page clearly states that the $300 bucks will guarantee free service for seven years. So, you may $25 a month for an Internet plan for one year, then you have the next six years of that Internet plan for free. The speeds aren’t even too bad, as the $300 “free” Internet plan provides 5 megabits download and 1 megabit upload. For comparison, a standard Time Warner Internet plan is $50 a month, with speeds of around 20 to 30 megabits download and 1 megabit upload. Basically, the good people of Kansas City are looking at a grand total of $310 for seven years of Internet. It won’t be running on the gigabit streams promised by the other payment plans, but it will provide the same speed an average Internet connection does currently. That’s big news.

Beyond the free Internet, the other options are pretty reasonable. The middle package is $70 per month and offers up to one gigabit upload and download with no data cap, as well as one terabyte of space on Google Drive. The priciest one comes in at $120 a month and adds an HD television package, and also includes a Nexus 7 tablet as the remote control, a router, a TV box, and one terabyte of space on Google Drive. Considering a number of Americans pay around $50 a month for what Google Fiber’s going to offer for free, this could literally change the game. Hopefully, Google Fiber comes to more major cities as quickly as possible.

(via Google Fiber)

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