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Bristol, another Tennessee town is getting Gigabit broadband

Om Malik — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 21:26:45 +0000

If this keeps up, then Tennessee soon might have a new state motto — the Gigabit State. Today, the town of Bristol (the self proclaimed birthplace of country music) announced it is now offering a 1 Gigabit per second broadband to its residents and local businesses in a 280-square-mile service area. It is not clear how much the gigabit-per-second service is going to cost per month.

The network has been developed by local electric company, the Bristol Tennessee Essential Services (BTES) using Alcatel’s gigabit passive optical gear. Chattanooga, Tenn. became the first city in the U.S. with gigabit speeds about 18 months ago and alos relied on its local electric utility to build the fiber network. It did so despite aggressive opposition from incumbent broadband providers.

A growing number of smaller towns are moving towards the gigabit broadband. Google Fiber recently went live in Kansas City. Several Ohio college towns are working with Gig.U project and Gigabit Squared on ultrafast broadband networks. The Gig.U group is working on rolling out networks in the state Maine and the city of Atlanta. Chicago has gotten into gigabit action as well.

The cities are taking matter into their own hands mostly because the current broadband market is essentially a comfortable duopoly of cable and telecom operators with little competitive pressure and as a result no incentive to boost the bandwidth and cut prices.

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Inspired by Google, Chicago pursues gigabit broadband

Kevin Fitchard — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 18:37:18 +0000

Quite the thriving tech community has sprouted up in Chicago’s River North neighborhood in the last year, spurred by startup hub 1871, Excelerate Labs and Google’s decision to relocate Motorola to Chicago’s storied Merchandise Mart. Now Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel wants to invest in broadband and Wi-Fi infrastructure to expand this nascent “Digital Alley” to new tech zones as well as bring cheap internet access to underserved areas throughout the city.

If it sounds like Chicago is angling to be the next candidate for Google Fiber, then you’re probably not too far off base. At a press conference on Monday, Emanuel revealed that Google Chairman Eric Schmidt was the inspiration for the idea. Chicago is in the process of overhauling its century-old water distribution system, and Schmidt suggested that Chicago take advantage of the fact it’s digging up the city to lay new data as well as water pipes, Emanuel said.

According to Crain’s Chicago Business, the city is also willing to offer up access to other urban bric-a-brac that make up Chicago’s municipal infrastructure, from utility and light poles to dark fiber already strung under the Chicago Transit’s authorities elevated rails and within its subway tunnels.

There are a lot of cities vying for Google’s attention in case it chooses to expand its fiber project, and Emanuel isn’t betting the farm Chicago will be its next benefactor. He didn’t mention Google Fiber specifically in his speech, and instead announced that Chicago would issue a request for proposal asking any interested company, local university or other organization to submit ideas for implementing all or parts of the broadband rollout. Emanuel said he anticipates members of Chicago’s growing startup and entrepreneurial community would play a key role in contributing ideas.

Chicago’s Merchandise Mart, new home of Motorola

The goal of the project is to build gigabit last-mile fiber infrastructure in 15 “innovation zones” located in commercial and industrial corridors throughout the city. A second aim of that fiber build-out is to bring cheap broadband access to underserved and disadvantaged neighborhoods in the city – of which Chicago has plenty – and develop training programs to teach residents in those areas the “digital skills” necessary to put that access to use.

Finally, Chicago plans to launch a network of free Wi-Fi hotspots throughout city parks, plazas and other public spaces. The first of these networks went live this month in Chicago’s touristy Millennium Park. Though this component may seem like the least ambitious of Emanuel’s plan, it may well be the most controversial. During the first internet boom, Emanuel’s mayoral predecessor Richard M. Daley proposed an ambitious plan to blanket the entire city in Wi-Fi, but after several false starts the project was killed in 2007.

Chicago isn’t exactly starving for broadband either. Because of its central role in commodities and futures exchange markets (Where did you think pork bellies were traded?) Chicago’s downtown business core has some of the fastest internet access in the world, which the new River North tech community is tapping into. But Emanuel’s aim is to convert industrial zones lining Chicago’s miasma of waterways and railroad tracks — once devoted to slaughtering livestock, packing meat and manufacturing cocktail weenies – into high-tech zones. Also, the educational institutions around which tech communities like to congregate are well outside of the downtown core.

Chicago skyline image courtesy of Flickr user Bert Kaufmann; Merchandise Mart image courtesy of Flickr user HarshLight

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What is gigabit broadband good for?

Om Malik — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 14:05:42 +0000

When it comes to broadband, gigabit per second speeds are all the rage. Large broadband providers in the U.S. have started showing off their gigabit efforts. Many communities in the U.S. and some countries have already rolled out their own gigabit networks, but it is still not clear what that speed is good for.

Kevin Lo, Head of Google’s fiber access program speaking at the Broadband World Forum in Paris was pretty candid when he said:

“If you put a gigabit in people’s homes they will be inspired to find new ways to use it. We have no idea why you need a gigabit today, but when we all had dial up you could not possibly imagine watching video over them. It’s not about doing email faster, it’s about doing those new things that you don’t do today.”

Lo singled out HD video conferencing and telemedicine but those are relatively obvious uses. We have discussed this question in the past and will surely be talking more about this topic going forward.

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Google to America: Get Online

Om Malik — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 16:18:30 +0000

Google makes no bones about the fact that it is a speed freak. It loves speedy websites and punishes those with slow websites. It wants faster wireless Internet. And with the recent launch of its gigabit to the home broadband program in Kansas City, Kan., the company has made it clearer: When it comes to broadband, faster is just better. Of course, that move disappointed a whole lot of people, including our own Stacey Higginbotham, who has been praying for better broadband in Austin, Texas.

Friday morning, Domain Name Wire, a blog dedicated to the domain name industry, reported that Google has registered more than 100 domains such as Alaska Get Online, Get Alaska Online, Get Online Alaska. The search giant has registered domain names for other states such as Alabama, Colorado, North Dakota and South Dakota, Arkansas, Arizona and so on. It also grabbed GetAmericaOnline.com. There may be more.

“Although it’s not clear if Google is the registrant, a company that registers domains for Google also registered HowFastIsMyBrowser.com at the same time,” Domain Name Wire reports.

Does this mean Google is going to start fiber broadband services in these states? I wish, but it’s not going to happen. I’m betting this is just another way for the company to start lobbying politicians and pushing for faster Internet across America. After all, the faster America gets online, the more it needs to use search to find something, anything. And that can’t be bad for Google.

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