Some in the internet service provider space have expressed concern over Gigabit Squared’s plans to bring lightning-fast fiber Internet speeds to Seattle, mainly because the company had no infrastructure set up in the city yet.
“The big problem is that they haven’t built anything,” Spectrum Networks co-founder John van Oppen said of Gigabit in June. “Given that they don’t have a product, their marketing is quite impressive.”
Well, now Gigabit Squared is starting to make moves. Today the Washington D.C.-based company announced a seven-figure investment to use conduit — a.k.a. electrical tubing to protect underground wiring — from a global provider of bandwidth infrastructure services called Zayo.
Zayo’s conduit, which is a mix of purchased assets and construction that the company has done over the years, already runs all throughout Seattle but is currently empty. Gigabit will use the conduit to pull a substantial amount of Seattle’s excess fiber it is using across the city.
“This will make the available excess capacity from the City of Seattle more useful for distribution routes throughout the city and provide alternative protected services available throughout the city,” Gigabit president Marc Ansboury told us.
Zayo, a private company that serves 45 states and Washington D.C., is also providing colocation space and other infrastructure services as part of the deal.
Gigabit Squared announced its residential rates in June for the ultra high-speed fiber network in Seattle it agreed to build last December. Customers in Seattle will be able to get 1000 Mbps speeds — or, “1Gig” — for around the same price per month as what Comcast charges for 50 Mbps download/10 Mbps upload.
In early 2014, Gigabit’s service will be first available in two of the 14 “demonstration” areas: U-District and Capitol Hill.
Previously on GeekWire: Why this ISP is weary of Seattle’s new gigabit Internet provider … Blazing fast broadband on the cheap: Pricing unveiled for Seattle’s gigabit Internet
