The small town of Salisbury, North Carolina is the first town in the nation to install a 10 gigabyte municipally owned service.
Fibrant is currently providing the infrastructure and is partnered with Calix, who provides the software. The town of Salisbury has invested about 33 million in installing miles of fiber optic cable to insure instantaneous response.
The system is built on fiber optic cable which carries super-fast pulses of light rather than slower electrical signals. The download speed is 300 times the US average speed, and upload speed is 1,000 times the U.S. average. Although this service is local, an iDirect modem connection can typically provide multiple options for an enterprise solution with extremely fast connections; especially for businesses outside of city limits.
At about $400 per month, the 10 gigabyte service is directed more toward businesses or institutions such as the city’s Catawba College. However, the upgrades will benefit the average resident by providing reliability and higher connectivity. Residents won’t be limited to a lower speed as all of the connections have 10 gigabyte capability, although most individuals won’t necessarily require this full capacity.
At about $400 per month, the 10 gigabyte service is directed more toward businesses or institutions such as the city’s Catawba College.
Several corporations have headquarters in Salisbury, and very high speeds could benefit their businesses. Some of the businesses include PGT, a leading manufacturer of doors and windows, Hallco, a live floor producer and Carolina Beverage Company, which produces Cheerwine. Food Lion, a major food chain, would be another good candidate for this service.
With airport and train services available, these are additional businesses that can benefit from the increased connectivity. The faster speeds will give Salisbury an advantage in economic development. It will make the city even more attractive to new businesses and enhance the capabilities of the present ones.
Every sector of business will benefit from technological innovations such as this service
Some include financial, retail, healthcare, and manufacturing. Healthcare can utilize remote diagnosis and remote surgery. Financial Institutions can swiftly make decisions based on the latest data. Manufacturing can analyze its processes to avoid defects more efficiently.
Some of the benefits for a business is the ability to draw more patrons. In restaurants, providing sports, news and music can bring customers in the door and be a benefit to bringing them back. Movies are another thing that interests customers, and the HDTV format is easily brought to life with a swift service. Symmetrical uploads and downloads define that one is not constrained by the other and can happen simultaneously.
Phone plans and cloud storage are options that a business might choose. Dark fiber provides protection against security threats and loss of data. Affordable ad insertion is another bonus for a business. With a 99.999% reliability, the downtime is minuscule when data must travel quickly such as a teleconference.
What does this mean for you in relation to your home or business?
As consumers use more bandwidth each year, a 10-gigabyte service could light a fire under some of the major internet providers to provide at least 1-gigabyte service to the consumer. Perhaps your town may take a cue from Salisbury and institute its own 10-gigabyte service. As data expands even more in the 21st century, an enterprise will require a dependable high-speed connection to contend with the sea of data that it must store and analyze.