Nebraska City, Neb., has chosen Spiral Communications to build a 1 Gbps fiber optic network to serve the 7,277 citizens of the town and business customers.
Spiral, in winning the deal, beat out incumbent telco Windstream (Nasdaq: WIN) and cable operator Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) by being the only provider to offer 1 Gigabit service, according to a story carried by the Nebraska City News-Press.
According to Nebraska City Mayor Jack Hobbie, increasing the speed limit in the town is necessary "to be competitive with other communities in retaining and attracting industry, businesses, families and individuals and to continue to provide a high quality of life for our citizens."
Spiral will reportedly pay $3 million for equipment to build the network and pay a 3 percent franchise fee, according to a story in the Lincoln-based Journal-Star which said Nebraska City is likely the first community-wide commitment to 1 Gigabit service in Nebraska. CenturyLink is trialing 1 Gigabit service in Omaha.
Spiral, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Spiral Solutions and Technology, is based in Bellevue, Neb. The company's specialty, the newspapers said, is high-speed Internet and FTTH along with wireless community networks.
"Spiral Communications has become a valuable partner in this process of gaining greater bandwidth as they are able to invest time, talent and resources in Nebraska City with the goal of growth for Spiral Communications and Nebraska City," Hobbie added.
The 1 Gbps service, the Journal-Star story noted, is not for everyone.
"Most people will use 10- to 50-megabit, and that will be the plans they'll choose," Spiral Communications Vice President of Development Craig Hagenau told the newspaper.
There was no mention of how much the service will cost or what, exactly, will be provided other than 1 Gbps broadband speeds.
For more:
- the Nebraska City News-Press carried this story
- and the Journal-Star had this story
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