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Gigabit Seattle - General FAQ
Q: How does this work?
The City of Seattle has laid over 500 miles of fiber over the last fifteen years. Much of this fiber is unused – we call it “dark fiber.” Earlier this year the Mayor proposed and the City Council passed an ordinance allowing us to lease that dark fiber to providers who would offer more Internet choices to Seattle’s businesses and residents. This fall we solicited proposals from companies to use that dark fiber as a backbone for bringing fiber broadband to homes and businesses in Seattle. Gigabit Squared is one of ten companies that responded.
Gigabit Squared’s plan is to lease the City’s dark fiber as a backbone for a demonstration project designed to begin rolling out the next generation of broadband internet service. Gigabit Squared will include three methods of delivering new broadband service choices:
- Laying fiber directly to the home/business (FTTH/B) in twelve demonstration neighborhoods.
- Gigabit Squared plans to lay more than 200 miles of fiber to over 50,000 households and businesses in those neighborhoods. They will offer several levels of service, starting at 20 Megabits per second and rising to 1 Gigabit per second. That’s for both upload and download speeds.
- Providing dedicated, gigabit-speed radio connections to speed deployment to multifamily housing and to businesses where fiber is not readily available.
- This is achieved by placing transmitters on top of 38 buildings across the City that are connected to Seattle’s excess fiber. These transmitters can beam internet to multifamily housing and offices across Seattle, even those outside the twelve demonstration neighborhoods, as long as they are in a line of sight. Internet service would be delivered to individual units within a building through existing wiring. Tenants would need to contact building owners and managers to arrange service.
- Offering high-speed wireless internet connections to subscribers in the twelve demonstration neighborhoods.
- This is not the same thing as the WiFi that you would find at a coffee shop. This service would allow users to get much faster upload and download speeds on their mobile devices, providing them with more choices.
Q: How is this different from other Internet access services?
A: These FTTH/B services will be 50-1000 times faster than typical cable modem or DSL Internet access services. Those services rely on infrastructure designed to carry phone calls or cable television programs. Those phone lines and cables weren’t built for today’s data usage, and aren’t adequate for tomorrow’s needs. By using fiber optic broadband, which is designed to carry lots of data, Seattle residents can have better Internet service choices. As more people use the Internet for voice and video services, it’s important to provide more choices.
Unlike most Internet access services, the FTTH/B services will be symmetrical (equal upload and download data rates) to enable interactive services that require two-way sharing of video, audio, images, and other large files in real time. Typically, a user finds that their provider delivers upload speeds at a fraction of their download speeds.
Q: How fast will Gigabit Seattle speeds be?
A: GB2 Seattle expects to offer the following service levels to fiber customers:
Downstream |
Upstream |
Up to 20 Mbps |
Up to 20 Mbps |
Up to 50 Mbps |
Up to 50 Mbps |
Up to 100 Mbps |
Up to 100 Mbps |
Up to 250 Mbps |
Up to 250 Mbps |
Up to 500 Mbps |
Up to 500 Mbps |
Up to 1000 Mbps (1 Gig) |
Up to 1000 Mbps (1 Gig) |
(Mbps means Megabits per second)
Q: When will fiber services be available?
A: Gigabit Squared plans for FTTH/B service to be available to 100,000 residents within 24 months (by year-end 2014). The network is expected to remain in place for at least 10 years.
Q: How does this affect other internet service providers?
A: Gigabit Squared is offering Seattle residents a new choice. GB2 Seattle will implement an open architecture to encourage innovation and competition. This means that the network will be “vendor neutral” and ensure customers will not be locked into purchasing content from a specific provider as part of this service. Other service providers can also continue to offer their services to customers as before.
Q: How do I sign up?
A: Gigabit Squared intends to start engineering for the fiber network in the first quarter of 2013. Soon afterward they will let the public how when and how to sign up for service.
Q: Why is my neighborhood not in one of the twelve demonstration locations?
A: The twelve demonstration neighborhoods were selected based on several factors, including density, proximity to the existing dark fiber network, and proximity to University of Washington campuses and housing. We asked Gigabit Squared to spread these locations across the city to the extent possible.
Even if you live in a different neighborhood, you might still be able to receive Gigabit Seattle service in the first phase. Multifamily buildings will be able to receive dedicated gigabit links through transmitters that will be installed on the roof of 38 buildings across Seattle. Talk to your building owner and/or manager if you are interested in this service.
Q: I don’t live in one of those twelve areas. When will fiber come to my neighborhood?
A: Once 15% of residents in the twelve demonstration neighborhoods sign up for fiber service, Gigabit Squared will begin rolling out their service to the rest of the city, in phases, based on expected demand in a particular location.
Q: How much will this cost the City of Seattle?
A: The City’s only costs are for existing staff who are helping manage the project as part of their normal job duties. Gigabit Squared will be raising capital to pay the cost of laying the fiber to the premises. They will also be paying rent to the City for using the existing dark fiber, so the City will be generating some revenue from this project. We have not yet estimated that revenue. There is no additional City money going into this project, and there is no risk to the taxpayer.