Super-fast Internet’s promise grows, just over Ga. line

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The future: What will you be able to do with super-fast broadband connections?

Tech experts offered their ideas about what they expect by the year 2025. Their comments were captured for a recent report by Pew Research Center and Elon University’s Imagining the Internet Center. Here are a few:

“Something like the holodeck concept first shown in the Star Trek series is actually within our grasp by 2025. Games, films, shopping for cars and vacations and (of course) porn will all become immersive 3D experiences.” — Kathryn Campbell, a partner with Primitive Spark, Inc.

“Avatars to go to meetings for me in Texas, rather than me flying down. Bus tours of Istanbul on Saturday afternoon from the comfort of my living room. Playing a game of football with my cousin in Ulan Bator from the gym downtown.” — David P. Collier-Brown, a system programmer and author.

“ … sensors everywhere—on property, on our clothes, on (and perhaps in) our bodies, all of it feeding digital information to be processed on servers or filtered and passed to the cloud…. On the receiving end of this massive information flow will be large displays at work and in many homes through which vast quantities of information can be rapidly visualized.” — Jonathan Grudin, a principal researcher at Microsoft Research.

“No doubt the killer app will be real-life holograms operating in real time: for instance, as doctors, as surgeons, as coworkers. It will change the workplace. Not only will it diminish the need for business travel, it will also increase competition in the labor market immensely…. in the future you have to compete with ‘cloud immigrants’—coworkers appearing in their work as a hologram.” — Marcel Bullinga, a technology futures speaker.

“My best guesses would be: a) far better telepresence, in terms of video quality, audio quality, robotic control, and time (for example: open all the time rather than just a short time for video conferencing); b) a few people starting to use life-logging technologies to capture everything in their lives (with some people choosing to share those); c) higher adoption of telesurgery and remote medical support; d) some new kind of entertainment, possibly including new kinds of social media; e) more sensor data being continuously captured and stored, including those embedded in the city (for bridges and buildings), cars, smart phones, portable home medical devices, and toys; f) better search for multimedia, especially videos.” — Jason Hong, an associate professor in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University

The future: What will you be able to do with super-fast broadband connections?

Tech experts offered their ideas about what they expect by the year 2025. Their comments were captured for a recent report by Pew Research Center and Elon University’s Imagining the Internet Center. Here are a few:

“Something like the holodeck concept first shown in the Star Trek series is actually within our grasp by 2025. Games, films, shopping for cars and vacations and (of course) porn will all become immersive 3D experiences.” — Kathryn Campbell, a partner with Primitive Spark, Inc.

“Avatars to go to meetings for me in Texas, rather than me flying down. Bus tours of Istanbul on Saturday afternoon from the comfort of my living room. Playing a game of football with my cousin in Ulan Bator from the gym downtown.” — David P. Collier-Brown, a system programmer and author.

“ … sensors everywhere—on property, on our clothes, on (and perhaps in) our bodies, all of it feeding digital information to be processed on servers or filtered and passed to the cloud…. On the receiving end of this massive information flow will be large displays at work and in many homes through which vast quantities of information can be rapidly visualized.” — Jonathan Grudin, a principal researcher at Microsoft Research.

“No doubt the killer app will be real-life holograms operating in real time: for instance, as doctors, as surgeons, as coworkers. It will change the workplace. Not only will it diminish the need for business travel, it will also increase competition in the labor market immensely…. in the future you have to compete with ‘cloud immigrants’—coworkers appearing in their work as a hologram.” — Marcel Bullinga, a technology futures speaker.

“My best guesses would be: a) far better telepresence, in terms of video quality, audio quality, robotic control, and time (for example: open all the time rather than just a short time for video conferencing); b) a few people starting to use life-logging technologies to capture everything in their lives (with some people choosing to share those); c) higher adoption of telesurgery and remote medical support; d) some new kind of entertainment, possibly including new kinds of social media; e) more sensor data being continuously captured and stored, including those embedded in the city (for bridges and buildings), cars, smart phones, portable home medical devices, and toys; f) better search for multimedia, especially videos.” — Jason Hong, an associate professor in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University

The future: What will you be able to do with super-fast broadband connections?

Tech experts offered their ideas about what they expect by the year 2025. Their comments were captured for a recent report by Pew Research Center and Elon University’s Imagining the Internet Center. Here are a few:

“Something like the holodeck concept first shown in the Star Trek series is actually within our grasp by 2025. Games, films, shopping for cars and vacations and (of course) porn will all become immersive 3D experiences.” — Kathryn Campbell, a partner with Primitive Spark, Inc.

“Avatars to go to meetings for me in Texas, rather than me flying down. Bus tours of Istanbul on Saturday afternoon from the comfort of my living room. Playing a game of football with my cousin in Ulan Bator from the gym downtown.” — David P. Collier-Brown, a system programmer and author.

“ … sensors everywhere—on property, on our clothes, on (and perhaps in) our bodies, all of it feeding digital information to be processed on servers or filtered and passed to the cloud…. On the receiving end of this massive information flow will be large displays at work and in many homes through which vast quantities of information can be rapidly visualized.” — Jonathan Grudin, a principal researcher at Microsoft Research.

“No doubt the killer app will be real-life holograms operating in real time: for instance, as doctors, as surgeons, as coworkers. It will change the workplace. Not only will it diminish the need for business travel, it will also increase competition in the labor market immensely…. in the future you have to compete with ‘cloud immigrants’—coworkers appearing in their work as a hologram.” — Marcel Bullinga, a technology futures speaker.

“My best guesses would be: a) far better telepresence, in terms of video quality, audio quality, robotic control, and time (for example: open all the time rather than just a short time for video conferencing); b) a few people starting to use life-logging technologies to capture everything in their lives (with some people choosing to share those); c) higher adoption of telesurgery and remote medical support; d) some new kind of entertainment, possibly including new kinds of social media; e) more sensor data being continuously captured and stored, including those embedded in the city (for bridges and buildings), cars, smart phones, portable home medical devices, and toys; f) better search for multimedia, especially videos.” — Jason Hong, an associate professor in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University

The future: What will you be able to do with super-fast broadband connections?

Tech experts offered their ideas about what they expect by the year 2025. Their comments were captured for a recent report by Pew Research Center and Elon University’s Imagining the Internet Center. Here are a few:

“Something like the holodeck concept first shown in the Star Trek series is actually within our grasp by 2025. Games, films, shopping for cars and vacations and (of course) porn will all become immersive 3D experiences.” — Kathryn Campbell, a partner with Primitive Spark, Inc.

“Avatars to go to meetings for me in Texas, rather than me flying down. Bus tours of Istanbul on Saturday afternoon from the comfort of my living room. Playing a game of football with my cousin in Ulan Bator from the gym downtown.” — David P. Collier-Brown, a system programmer and author.

“ … sensors everywhere—on property, on our clothes, on (and perhaps in) our bodies, all of it feeding digital information to be processed on servers or filtered and passed to the cloud…. On the receiving end of this massive information flow will be large displays at work and in many homes through which vast quantities of information can be rapidly visualized.” — Jonathan Grudin, a principal researcher at Microsoft Research.

“No doubt the killer app will be real-life holograms operating in real time: for instance, as doctors, as surgeons, as coworkers. It will change the workplace. Not only will it diminish the need for business travel, it will also increase competition in the labor market immensely…. in the future you have to compete with ‘cloud immigrants’—coworkers appearing in their work as a hologram.” — Marcel Bullinga, a technology futures speaker.

“My best guesses would be: a) far better telepresence, in terms of video quality, audio quality, robotic control, and time (for example: open all the time rather than just a short time for video conferencing); b) a few people starting to use life-logging technologies to capture everything in their lives (with some people choosing to share those); c) higher adoption of telesurgery and remote medical support; d) some new kind of entertainment, possibly including new kinds of social media; e) more sensor data being continuously captured and stored, including those embedded in the city (for bridges and buildings), cars, smart phones, portable home medical devices, and toys; f) better search for multimedia, especially videos.” — Jason Hong, an associate professor in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University

Jason Liechty is so, so ready to fly online. The 28-year-old cook, who lives near Chattanooga, is about to sign up for the stunningly fast Internet service offered by the city-owned electric company.

“My best friends have it, and it blows their minds,” Liechty said.

For him, downloading a movie is a 45 minute to hour-long slog.

His buddies? They watch it almost as soon as they want it. It takes him 90 minutes to upload a 10-minute video. His friends: maybe 45 seconds.

Welcome to Chattanooga, where spinning rainbow wheels, hung web sites and buffering videos are virtually extinct for those who pay $69.99 a month for home access via the gig network.

This Tennessee city has what portions of metro Atlanta may soon get: souped-up Internet connections running on fiber optic lines laid to every home and business.

But what Chattanooga is in the midst of trying to answer is: How can super-fast Internet connections change your life?

The city has captured lots of buzz with its widely available gig network. Average consumers and tech pros voice delight with its speed, reliability and price. Yet relatively few locals pay to get the very fastest service. Fewer still come close to using its full potential.

It took sharp price cuts and automatic upgrades to get more people on the city’s gig. And they’ve had to work around basic technical limits outside of the city’s control. For example, most WiFi routers can’t wirelessly deliver gigabit-per-second speeds. And residents say they sometimes are slowed by what is allowed by websites and systems outside the metro area.

In Chattanooga, the gig’s greatest appeal is what it might do in the future.

Lots of cities nationwide are yearning for that same potential. Google has already installed a residential network in much of Kansas City, and it’s expanding to other states.

Earlier this year, Google announced it is considering installing a gig system to serve homes in nine metro Atlanta communities. Rival AT&T responded with a list of 11 local communities where it might offer gigabit-per-second speeds. That's about 100 times faster than what's typical in American homes.

Comcast, metro Atlanta’s dominant cable provider, is increasing local residential speeds to about half that being contemplated by Google and AT&T.

In Chattanooga, boosters talk about radiologists being able to remotely handle waves of images more swiftly and university researchers planning to harness huge buckets of health-related data.

Aaron Welch, the founder of Iron Gaming, a 24-person tech company, said a big plus of the fiber is its ability to handle lots of online connections simultaneously.

“The general consumer couldn’t use enough bandwidth on every device in their home — every phone, every tablet, every smart TV, every computer — to saturate a gig,” Welch said.

Welch’s business puts on live gaming events. Chattanooga’s fiber could allow him to simultaneously stream online video of 100 gaming players. “In any other city we are limited to three at the most,” he said.

Some see more immediate benefits of the fiber connections, which are provided by EPB, the city-owned utility.

“It’s way more reliable,” said Robin Howe, a 56-year-old who works from home providing college counseling and grant writer services.

But nine out of 10 of EPB’s Internet customers don’t get the full gig service, which is only in about 4,600 homes and 53 businesses.

Instead, most choose to pay about $12 less a month for connections one-tenth as fast — 100 megabits per second — but still like lightning.

“I just haven’t seen the need to have those (gig) speeds,” said David Hawke, a 48-year-old who has an online marketing business.

Kyle Gordy, a 27-year-old web developer, is hot for getting the gig. He hasn’t nailed down all the ways he might use it, though he imagines it would be a blast if his family simultaneously streams new movies released at a resolution four times that of regular high definition.

“We’re all trying to figure out what to use the gig for,” Gordy said.

Chattanooga isn’t alone in that dilemma. Experts around the nation are trying to fathom the potential. A report last week from Pew Research Center and Elon University’s Imagining the Internet Center gathered predictions from more than 1,400 people, primarily tech experts. Some expect the faster speeds will lead to videos that use 3D holograms, creating deeper applications in particular for gaming, health care and education.

David Wade, EPB’s chief operating officer, said the utility’s fiber will pay off in ways people haven’t yet thought of. He likens the potential to that of running electric lines decades ago.

At first, “no one thought of air conditioning or vacuum cleaners or computers,” Wade said. “It will allow business to come up with new opportunities for growth.”

Area residents say more start-ups seem to call Chattanooga home, drawn in part by the fast Internet, a downtown renaissance and a cool vibe. The gig has attracted press coverage, much of it positive, from some of the nation’s biggest media outlets. Part of the draw is that widespread gig came earlier to Chattanooga than to places like New York and Los Angeles.

Chattanooga’s network stemmed from EPB’s plan to use fiber optics to make its electric system more reliable. The planning morphed to use the fiber to pipe Internet, video and voice connections to more than 400,000 people in the company’s territory, which dips into parts of northwest Georgia.

EPB built the system primarily with $169 million from a 2008 bond issue and $111 million from a U.S. Department of Energy grant.

Early on the company charged residents $350 a month to get the gig. Almost no one bit. Then EPB slashed prices to about what Google charges for its gig in Kansas City.

Now, EPB’s service is much cheaper and far faster than what’s offered by its prime competitor. Comcast in Chattanooga offers speeds roughly a tenth as fast for about $30 to $45 more per month, depending on whether the connection is bundled with TV and telephone service.

Comcast spokesman Alex Horwitz said the company offers benefits beyond EPB’s, such as a deeper video catalogue. But Comcast may not be a player in Chattanooga much longer. It plans to sell its system there as part of broader divestitures tied to its proposed purchase of Time Warner Cable.

Nationally, the cable industry has protested government-operated fiber projects.

It isn’t “appropriate to use taxpayer dollars to construct networks where a private broadband network already exists,” Pat Esser, the president of Cox Communications, said in an emailed statement. “The market is working.”

Cox, one of the nation's largest cable providers, is in the process of expanding its offerings to include residential gig service. The company is part of Atlanta-based Cox Enterprises, which also operates The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Whoever provides gig service, some Chattanooga residents revel in what it offers.

“It allows me to go at 100 miles per hour and have technology to match me,” said Lucy Beard, who with her husband moved their small start-up this summer from California’s Silicon Valley to the city.

They fell for many of the area’s attributes, including the gig. The network helps their business, Feetz, move big data files to make customized shoes with 3D printing.

“Right now, I’m not limited,” Beard said. “You don’t realize how that matters until I go and spend a couple weeks back in San Francisco (where Internet connections were far slower). I was banging my head against a wall.”