The universities were inspired by Google's decision last year to build an experimental 1Gbps fiber network in Kansas City that has started construction and is expected to be completed sometime within the next year. Last summer Google lit up a beta version of its fiber network in residential neighborhoods located near Stanford University in Palo Alto. The network has been free to use for students and faculty in the area for the past year, and users in the area have reported getting download speeds of 150Mbps and upload speeds of 90Mbps.

in Network World's LAN & WAN section.