Gigabit Challenge shows demand for network, short supply of local winners

on 23 January 2012. Posted in Google Fiber & Gigabit Challenge

Gigabit Challenge organizer Herb Sih turned a potentially embarrassing mid-event development into a moment of pride for the techies who poured into the Kansas City Public Library’s plaza branch on Jan. 18.

But the results of the much-anticipated entrepreneurship contest tied to Google Inc.’s to-be launched network in the Kansas Cities still may have some locals with their tails between their legs.

Sih, managing partner of ThingBig Partners LLC, asked the 250-plus crowd that had showed for the competition (dubbed @GBChallengeKC on Twitter) to give themselves a round of applause.

For the first time in library history, high usage had shut down the Plaza Branch’s free Wi-Fi network, putting smartphones, tablets — including this reporter’s iPad — and other devices in the dark for the latter part of the technology-inspired event. The announcement was met with smiles, clapping and laughter. A Google spokeswoman later told the audience she’d emailed her employer to tell engineers just how much the 1-gigabit high-speed Internet network was needed in Kansas City in light of the technical difficulties.