Your Internet's about to get fast
How fast can you bootleg the latest Game of Thrones episode? For some Seattleites, the answer will soon be mere seconds. Private company Gigabit Squared (GB2) will roll out fiber in fourteen Seattle neighborhoods by fall 2013, in partnership with the University of Washington and the City of Seattle (a development announced in December). Their network will provide connections of up to 1 gigabyte. That's 100 to 1000 times faster than current high-speed Internet providers. Roughly translated, your cable Internet will become the equivalent of a VW jalopy.
GB2 representative Doug Adams says further details of the company's plans will be rolled out in a June public event. While the network’s rough geography has already been established, GB2 is pitting neighborhood against neighborhood to determine precisely which areas will get the service first, come fall. A wireless “umbrella” will also be established to cover areas outside those initial rollout neighborhoods, and Adams notes there will be special pricing for low-income families to access the network. Otherwise the cost will be competitive with current broadband providers. Seattle will be one of the first U.S. cities to introduce gigabyte Internet for consumer use.
Microsoft and Apple play copycat
This week the twin titans of Microsoft and Apple looked to the future by looking to each other. Both companies are primed to take a page from one another’s playbook as they move forward.
