Jumping on the bandwidth bandwagon (Omaha 1 gig a second)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.omaha.com/article/20130512/MONEY/705129943/1697#jumping-on-the-bandwidth-bandwagon

Published Sunday, May 12, 2013 at 12:30 am / Updated at 5:18 pm

By Barbara Soderlin
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

Omahans wondering what CenturyLink's new ultra-fast Internet service will do for the city's economy have a few other cities to look to for a sense of what's to come.

While it's too soon to say that the service has launched any large businesses or inspired any life-changing inventions, those working in “1-gigabit cities” say the seemingly unlimited bandwidth has attracted startups, invigorated entrepreneurship and retained businesses that otherwise planned to leave.

“We are just in the beginning stages of figuring out what you can actually do with it,” said Sheldon Grizzle, founder of the Company Lab, a business accelerator in Chattanooga, Tenn., where the city-owned electric utility launched 1-gigabit-per-second service in late 2010. “It will permeate every aspect of our lives when bandwidth is no longer an issue — and that's really exciting, and we're just now starting to scratch the surface of that.”

Being one of the first metropolitan areas where 1-gig service is available, he said, Omaha will have a head start when it comes to attracting and building out businesses that rely on an ability to get access to and share large amounts of data.

FULL story at link.

[RC]

1. Kansas City is gearing up via Google for 1 gig Internet.

I am told we will get ours this Summer some time. The Fiber is already up at the pole. All that remains is to run it into the house, then good-bye AT&T U-verse. We have 5 meg service with them now. When I lived in Fargo I had 5 meg also, that was much faster from Cable One.