Salisbury, N.C., Launches Nation’s First Citywide 10-Gig Internet Service

(MCT) -- The city of Salisbury’s municipally owned utility announced Thursday that 10 gigabit per second Internet service would be available throughout the city, starting at Catawba College. The utility company, Fibrant, said the service would offer the highest citywide speeds available in any U.S. community. “Salisbury is now America’s first 10-gigabit city,” the company said in a statement.

Gov. Pat McCrory was expected to attend an announcement about the service Thursday afternoon at Catawba College’s Ketner School of Business. The college plans to turn computer labs into Digital Media Creation and Collaboration labs and add high-speed video conferencing around the campus.

“It is exciting that a small college like Catawba can now experiment with high-speed technology we believed to be years away,” said Joanna Jasper, chief information officer at Catawba. “To put the speed change in perspective, having 10 Gbps gives us the potential to be 10 times faster on campus.”

Fibrant is providing the gigabit service through a partnership with Calix Inc., a provider of gigabit fiber systems and services.

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