Hasta La Gadget!

Did you move to the Kansas City area too late to register for Google Fiber? Don’t fret — Google has both reopened sign-ups in the region’s 180 current fiber neighborhoods and detailed an upcoming expansion. Those in existing Fiber areas can sign up for service by December 22nd, with installations due by the spring. Meanwhile, those in outlying locations such as Gladstone, Grandview, Kansas City North, South Kansas City and Raytown will get a chance to sign up in March.

The search giant has also provided a brief explanation of how Austin residents will sign up for Fiber service when it’s available in their town. As in Kansas City, Austinites will be organized into fiberhoods that have to meet registration goals within a few weeks to qualify for a deployment. There’s still no word on just when the process will begin, although the mid-2014 service target doesn’t leave much time for Google to get the ball rolling.

Filed under: Networking, Internet, HD, Google

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Source: Google Fiber Blog (1), (2)

After the amazing success of our New York Pitch-Off in February, we thought it would be fun to bring the energy and excitement of a mini-Disrupt to more cities across the country. We’re pleased to announced the 2013 Meetups + Pitch-Offs will begin in Austin on May 30 at Stage On Sixth in downtown Austin from 6pm to 10pm. You can buy tickets now!

Then, throughout the year, we’re holding meetups with pitch-offs in Seattle, San Diego, and Boston.

Each meetup is traditionally a crowded mishmash of networking, hustling and, well, drinking, so 21 and older only, please. This year, after the roaring success of our first pitch-off, each meetup will feature a rapid fire pitch-off and a few brief on-stage discussions for TechCrunch TV.

You can sign up for the Pitch-Off here and buy a $5 ticket that entitles you to booze and other goodness. Sponsors can buy tables here (and we definitely need your support to make this a rocking event.)

The pitch-off is a way to get your startup in front of TC judges as well as a few local judges from the area. Our goal is to pick three winners. Third place gets one ticket to Disrupt SF, second place gets two tickets, and the winner gets a spot in Startup Alley. Everyone who pitches will be considered for the Startup Battlefield as well.

Participants interested in competing in the pitch-off will have 60 seconds to explain why their startup is awesome. PowerPoint presentations are not allowed. These products must currently be in stealth or private beta, and they must be ready to launch at Disrupt in September.

Our sponsors help make meetups happen. If you are interested in learning more about sponsorship opportunities, please contact our sponsorship team here sponsors@techcrunch.com.

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Austin, Texas will soon be getting a dose of Google Fiber as it has been selected as the first city to receive the service outside of Kansas City in the middle of 2014. But it looks like there’s about to be an old-fashioned showdown out in the street as AT&T is announcing they also plan on delivering a 1Gbps network in Austin as well.

AT&T calls the move a part of its “Project VIP” broadband initiative with the company currently prepared to build it 1Gbps network in Austin. “Most encouraging is the recognition by government officials that policies which eliminate unnecessary regulation, lower costs and speed infrastructure deployment, can be a meaningful catalyst to additional investment in advanced networks which drives employment and economic growth,” said AT&T’s chairman and CEO, Randall Stephenson. (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Study Finds That More Than Half Polled Check Their Facebook On Their Phones At Work, On The Toilet Or While Drunk, Facebook Starts Placing Invitation Limitations For Events,

First thought: “Ha!” Second thought: “Oh, wait — competition is an excellent thing.” While it’s highly probable that AT&T is looking to both overshadow Google’s launch party and maintain a foothold in one of its most prized states, the outfit’s terse announcement of an impending 1Gbps fiber network should honestly be seen as nothing but excellent news for residents of Austin. Merely hours after Google and the city of Austin jointly made clear that Google Fiber would be hitting up local homes in mid-2014, Ma Bell has made public its “intent” to built a 1 Gigabit fiber network in the same area.

AT&T’s expanded fiber plans in Austin anticipate it will be granted the “same terms and conditions as Google on issues such as geographic scope of offerings, rights of way, permitting, state licenses and any investment incentives.” Of course, it’s seriously unlikely AT&T will offer up basic fiber connections for free in the way that Google’s doing, but on a macro level, we certainly hope this type of one-upping continues in more towns across the country. And, more specifically, that AT&T continues to roll out fiber networks on its own accord in various locales; with FiOS expansion indefinitely paused, we sure need someone to step up and keep the dream alive.

Filed under: Internet, AT&T

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Source: AT&T

Hear that? It’s Austin, being weird enough to add yet another reason to live within its city limits. As rumored, Google Fiber will be rolling down to one of Texas’ most esteemed towns in the near future, joining the Kansas City, Kansas and Missouri metro as the only locales (so far) in the US of A offering the outfit’s Fiber-based TV, phone and 1Gbps broadband services. Mum’s the word on an exact rollout, but we’ll update this post as we learn more.

Filed under: Internet, HD, Google

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Source: Gig.U