Leaders from 32 cities in 19 states this week launched the Next Century Cities coalition to promote next-generation broadband Internet to attract businesses and jobs and to help reduce the digital divide among their residents.

Included in the 32 cities are Kansas City, Mo., and Kansas City, Kans., the first Google Fiber sites in the nation to receive Google’s 1 Gbps connections, starting in 2012. Even with the flurry of tech activity that has followed Google Fiber in those two cities, neighborhood and nonprofit groups are concerned that fast Internet connections aren’t reaching nearly enough of the area’s poor residents.

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