Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn was not in fact dressed like Jedi knight (the most popular alternative faith in the United Kingdom, so it wouldn’t have been weird) when he announced an ultra-fast broadband plan that would capitalize on the city’s excess (or “dark”) fiber optic lines.
(The headline is misleading, and I can see how you might have reached the wrong impression. I apologize. I was trying to capture the spirit of the moment.)
But the City of Seattle has decided to work with broadband developer Gigabit Squared, to put together a fiber-to-the-home/fiber-to-
Speeds are estimated to begin at 20 Mbps upstream/downstream and proceed up to 1 Gbps. Enterprise-class service could exceed even that. Pricing is still be worked out, but because the city is leasing its fiber, it will be less expensive than if a broadband provider had to implement their own infrastructure. “Extremely competitive” is what the GB2 site says.
By one ranking, Seattle has the fourth fastest broadband speed in the U.S. — but that average was a miserable 805 Kbps. With Gigabit Seattle promising 20 Mbps at the slow end, that will make a huge difference.
Gigabit Squared is supported by something called Gig.U, which is the catchier name of the University Community Next Generation Innovation Project, a consortium of more than 30 research universities who have joined together to advocate for a much more robust ultra-fast network. The University of Washington, a Gig.U member, has already been working to improve the broadband infrastructure of Seattle’s high tech and biotech nodes.
But until this public-private agreement, residential customers were just not in the giga-running. Gigabit Seattle will serve twelve “demonstration” neighborhoods with fiber connections, plus offer gigabit broadband wireless for multifamily housing and offices across Seattle, plus mobile wireless internet.
Geekwire has typed out all the locations for you, though you’ll probably still want to check the coverage map to see proposed boundaries. Contact Gigabit Squared and they’ll let you know when service is ready near you (ETA: Fall 2013). The more interest from sign-ups, the more priority a neighborhood will have:
- Area 1: the University of Washington’s West Campus District
- Area 2: South Lake Union
- Area 3: First Hill/Capitol Hill/Central Area
- Area 4: the University of Washington’s Metropolitan Tract in downtown Seattle
- Area 5: the University of Washington’s Family Housing at Sand Point
- Area 6: Northgate
- Area 7: Volunteer Park Area
- Area 8: Beacon Hill and SODO Light Rail Station
- Areas 9-12: Mount Baker, Columbia City, Othello, and Rainier Beach
