Among the U.S. cities where providers like Google and others have deployed or are considering “gigabit” Internet:
Austin, Texas
Chattanooga, Tenn.
Chicago
Kansas City, Kan., and Kansas City, Mo.
Minneapolis
Provo, Utah.
Seattle
Note: Some of these services are not available throughout the respective cities
Sources: Google Fiber, Ars Technica and other published reports
Fiber-to-the-premises
The backbone of the nation’s Internet service runs through fiber optic cable that runs along highways, rail lines and along utility poles across the country. But homes and businesses are typically connected to that fiber spine by copper wires, which slows the speed of service. Providers like Google Fiber connect the optical wire directly to homes, making Internet connections many times faster.
The warp speed Internet service that courses through Chattanooga has helped attract and create more than 1,000 new jobs, say the city’s business boosters.
In Kansas City, Kan., computer geeks with startup dreams turned low slung houses linked to a Google-built Internet system into a high-tech entrepreneurial village.
Networks that can reach speeds more than 100 times faster than typical broadband Internet service are popping up in cities all over the country. Now, business leaders and government officials are looking at ways to bring them to metro Atlanta.
These sophisticated networks could allow users to download a high-definition movie in a couple minutes, rather than 20 minutes to 30 minutes for many broadband users.
In the arms race to recruit high-tech industry, communities are wrangling to get the fastest possible Internet service. But zooming “gigabit” connections could be more than just a sweetener to coax data-crunching companies and tech-savvy millenials. It’s poised to be an amenity aimed at attracting regular homebuyers and renters.
At least that’s what some metro Atlanta communities are betting on.
“The requirement for (Internet) speed is so much greater than it was (a few years ago). Imagine what it will be five years from now, or 10 years for now,” said Mark Toro, managing partner with North American Properties, which is developing a major mixed-use project in Alpharetta, and an apartment community in Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward with “gigabit” Internet service.
NAP’s $600 million Avalon project in Alpharetta is installing fiber-to-the-premises Internet with plans to pitch it as an amenity not only to office tenants, but to prospective residents and hotel guests. Alpharetta officials are trying to figure out ways to expand to residents the ultra-high-speed offerings that tech businesses in the city already enjoy.
Midtown Atlanta business leaders have had early discussions about providing “gigabit” Internet service to office towers and condo buildings. The city of Stockbridge announced a $15 million partnership with an Internet service provider earlier this summer to develop service. Officials with Invest Atlanta and the Atlanta Beltline have said they’re exploring ideas for high-speed service along the Beltline as a way to attract high-tech companies.
Fiber optic cable runs in conduit across Midtown, said Kevin Green, president and CEO of the Midtown Alliance. The business and civic group has held talks with Georgia Tech officials and others about how to connect directly to a fiber network to attract startup companies that are spinning out of Tech, which has the state’s fastest network.
“I think for any urban district, it would be almost malpractice not to be looking at this,” Green said.
Fiber optic cable runs along highways, rail lines and utility poles throughout the country. But homes and businesses aren’t typically connected to the web via fiber, but through copper wires that are slower. Plans by Stockbridge, the Avalon developers and others would run fiber optic cable directly to buildings.
Connecting existing buildings to fiber isn’t cheap. But with wider adoption, technology experts hope the price comes down.
Mark Holland, Mayor and CEO of Wyandotte County/Kansas City (Kan.) Unified Government, said Realtors have told him homes hooked-up to his city’s Google Fiber Internet service list for $3,000 to $5,000 more than properties that aren’t.
Google rolled out residential “Gigabit” service last year, but it’s yet to start its corporate business. Google linked the local schools into the system, and Holland said it has “opened up the world” to students and helped bridge a “digital divide” among socio-economic groups in the community.
In Kansas City, Kansas and Missouri, it costs residents a few hundred dollars to hook up to the system, with Google service topping out at about $120 per month for Internet and television service, or $70 for Internet alone.
The metro area is putting business recruitment plans in place to market the region. Local officials were skilled at pitching traditional manufacturers and other businesses, now they have a new sector in technology to woo.
The service has already attracted tech entrepreneurs. Kansas City Startup Village, a collective of small companies and an incubator of sorts for the metro area’s burgeoning tech scene, was founded last year in a collection of houses south of the Kansas River.
There are around two dozen companies sharing space in the houses, according to its website.
“This Internet capacity puts us on the map,” Holland said.
In Chattanooga, the city’s municipal utility system, EPB, established a fiber optic network to provide the fastest available Internet and to control a smart power grid to create a more efficient electrical system and to be able to respond more quickly to outages.
Now, more than 150,000 households and businesses are connected to the network, including Volkswagen’s manufacturing plant.
That network played a significant role in creating or attracting 1,000 new jobs to Chattanooga since the system started in 2010, said J.Ed. Marston, a spokesman for the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce.
Shayne Woods’ startup, FWDHealth, relies on the Chattanooga network to help it crunch massive amounts of data for employers, insurers and heath care providers.
“(The network) provides large pipeline to carry loads of information, and proves very useful when trying to find the proverbial needle in the terabyte haystack,” Woods said.
Perhaps Georgia’s best example of the most advanced Internet connection is Georgia Tech. The university has direct fiber connections in about 150 buildings on its Midtown campus. There are 132,000 access wired network ports, with 4,000 wireless access points, said Ron Hutchins, chief technology officer at Tech.
The network powers some of the most sophisticated research in the nation as well as startups tech firms tied to the institution.
Before the 1996 Olympics, Tech wired its newly built dorms with an earlier high-speed network that offered significantly higher Internet speeds than what was commonly available in metro Atlanta. Dorm demand skyrocketed from under 70 percent occupancy to requiring a waiting list, Hutchins said.
Later, Tech increased its capabilities and now sports a 10 gigabit backbone, Hutchins said.
The university crossed over the Downtown Connector into Midtown with the construction of Technology Square, and Hutchins said he foresees the continued expansion of the school into Midtown as the college grows.
“It’s like air and water. We don’t plan a building without (fiber) going into a building in a major way,” he said.
