North Kansas City, Missouri which already has some fiber infrastructure is now planning to build a Gigabit-to-the-Premise (GTTP) broadband network. The LiNKCity network is expected to go live sometime this spring. City officials believe that the new network, will help attract more businesses to the city. World Wide Packets is the equipment provider for this phase of the buildout. The construction of the much-anticipated liNKCity fiber optic network began on December 5, 2005. (press release)
GTTP doesn’t necessarily mean that every home will have access to a gigabit ethernet service. I checked out their website and current price offerings are not that cheap. A 30 mbps connection will set you back a whopping $160 a month, while businesses pay $200 a month. Slower speeds will available at about $15 a month. But given the options, this is still a big step forward. Broadband Reports adds that “over the past several years they’ve defeated lawsuits by Time Warner Cable, dodged statewide muni-ban efforts by AT&T.”
If they had that in my town, I’m sure there would be a way to come up with $160/m, but only if it was actually transmitting at least 20 mbps on a regular basis.
Pricing doesn’t seem that bad. $35 for 5 meg is competitive with cable, and it’s even full speed downstream.
The interesting thing here is that North KC was just about the last suburb where Time Warner launched cable modem service. They city had been demanding it for a long time, and TWC was dragging its feet. As soon as the city started working on its network TWC soon flipped the switch on cable modem service.