Company Starts Gigabit-per-Second Broadband Project

Your connection with the internet may have everything to do with how fast your computer seems.  If you are doing most of your work through an internet connection, the time between the click on a button on a web page and the time you get a response can mean the difference between moving on with your life and total frustration.


A standard DSL connection to the home might range anywhere from 256 kilobits per second to 768 kilobits.  Cable modems can run ten times faster, between 2 megabits per second up to 5 megabits.  With FIOS, which uses a fiber optic cable connection, your speed may depend on how much you are shelling out for your connection.  But it can run twice as fast as cable modems, or from 10 megabits per second and higher.


Now a new Ohio start-up company, called Gigabit Squared, has raised $200 million to fund a gigabit-per-secod broadband project, one that would run 100 times faster than the typical fiber optic connection.  Gigabit Squared will work with the University Community Next Generation Innovation Project (Gig.U), a coalition of 30 universities focused on improved broadband.  They will select six communities in which to build the ultra-fast broadband networks, they said.



The new program has partnerships with several companies, including Corning, G4S, Juniper Networks, Alcatel Lucent, Ericson and Level 3, Mark Ansboury, the president of Gigabit Squared, said.  Funding comes from private sources.


The project will focus on creating a self-funding service that doesn't depend on government funding or subsidies, said Blair Levin, executive director of Gig.U and lead author of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission's 2010 national broadband plan. "We're very excited about the notion that the private sector is stepping up to this, because it can build that sustainable model," he said.


The winning communities will be selected between November and the first quarter of 2013.  For more information, you can check out the Gigabit Squared web site here: http://gbps2.com .