Gigabit Internet brings the speed of your LAN to the web

                                        Marc R. Burns - center

The following is a guest blog post from Marc R. Burns, Managing Partner, Techtheon. Marc is an avid supporter of bringing Gigabit Internet to Gaston County.

Up until recently, most businesses, of any size, have never had to consider if their network (i.e. LAN) was as fast as their Internet connection, since even 10 year old network hardware (i.e. switches, routers, wireless access points, etc.) were always faster.

Early networks (circa 1990) supported 10 megabits per second (m/s) speeds, both up & down. So even a DSL Internet connection (i.e. 6 m/s down X 0.25 m/s up) wasn't as fast as the network/LAN.

Currently, most every small business has a LAN supporting 100 m/s speeds (up & down).

Over the past 5 years, we have only deployed gigabit speed network/LAN hardware (i.e. 1,000 m/s up & down). Any PC, laptop or Mac purchased in the last 5+ years contains a gigabit network card inside. Wireless N and now Wireless A access points easily support up to 300m/s connections. (Wireless at least for the current future, will always be slower than wired. And this is even slower when you are on the cellular networks.)

My point, most businesses, small or large, are very used to how fast a file, folder, print job, scan, phone call, video, etc. goes across their network, in just fractions of a second. You "click the mouse" and it's done.

Now compare this when uploading or downloading a file from a website, email message, filling out/saving a web form, remotely accessing a computer, attending an online meeting, etc. The average user's experience of doing these kind of activities, over the Internet, is in a word "slow" or "click and wait".

Gigabit Internet brings the speed of your LAN to the web. Work with a customer, over the Internet, just like they were across the desk or the hallway from you in your office. Same when working with your fellow employees, when scattered across multiple locations (cities, states, countries) the user experience is just like you're all in the same building!

That is a power of Gigabit Internet!

Gigabit. What’s coming next, and are we ready?

The CBJ held their annual Global Charlotte event on June 10, and the primary focus of this year’s conference was Gigabit Internet. The event really got underway when a panel discussion, moderated by Dr. Cheryl Richards, Dean of Northeastern University – Charlotte, discussed the impact of Gigabit on a community. Dr. Richards got the crowd buzzing when she proposed a new marketing campaign slogan “Got Gig?” and positioned the all-women panel as "we put the broad in broadband." She’s quite the marketer!

Deb Socia of Next Century Cities was one of the panelists, and framed the opportunity in a similar way to when the nation switched from dial-up to broadband. We don’t know all the future applications. “What’s coming next, and are we ready?” she asked. Deb expressed the high priority that needs to be spent on Digital Inclusion and affordable broadband access. She praised the 5Mb free service offering from Google Fiber, but went on to say “just saying here’s access at a low price is not enough”. The community must reach out to the underserved in order to boost economic development. She shared that research has shown that Gigabit Internet service brings higher home values and lower joblessness. Deb also gave Charlotte Hearts Gigabit a nice shout-out in front of the sold-out event crowd. “Every community needs a cheerleader!” – thanks Deb!

Another panelist, Jill Szuchmacher from Google Fiber, said “Gigabit speeds are the next chapter of the Internet.” Jill said “Google saw issues in last mile and wanted to do something about it.” She complimented Charlotte saying that we have done a tremendous job in leveraging Gigabit and our strong focus on Digital Inclusion. “You have to make sure everyone has access” Jill stated. It was great to hear Jill encourage more competition in the last mile. “North Carolina is a place where cities are building the capacity for ‘what’s next’.”

Jean Davis from MCNC was the other panelist. “Having high speed Internet is not an option at most businesses” Jean explained. “Sharing best practices is key for leveraging broadband.” Jean continued “Consider what having a Gigabit has done for Universities.” MCNC provides a state-wide communications network for our Universities.

The Broadband keynote speaker for the event was Blair Levin, executive director of Gig.U, and former Executive Director of the National Broadband Plan, and chief of staff to FCC chairman Reed Hundt. Mr. Levin expressed the economic benefit of high speed broadband networks. “Home prices increase with Gigabit Fiber” was one example Blair listed. He encouraged Charlotte to think about what we can do with world class broadband. Gigabit banking, the Civic Internet of Things, and Digital Inclusion were three areas Mr. Levin suggested we leverage. He also gave a shout-out to MCNC, saying “I think MCNC is a fantastic organization”. We’re sure this put a smile on Jean’s face!

Overall the event was terrific for everyone interested in how Charlotte can leverage Gigabit to improve the economic prospects for our region. Jen Wilson from the Charlotte Business Journal posted this story which includes 20+ pictures from the event, as well as an excellent series of Tweets from the event. Thank you CBJ for another great event!

((* Note: In order to achieve gigabit internet speeds you need to have a computer, modem, and AC wi-fi router that support the speed. We recently purchased a gigabit wif-fi router for less than $100 (TP-LINK Archer C7 AC1750 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router) and have been pleased with the results.))

Google I/O Extended Comes to Charlotte

Charlotte’s developers and entrepreneurs got together this past week for Google I/O, an annual event showcasing Google’s new products. The event is hosted in San Francisco and this year a special “Extended” version was live streamed to Charlotte at the Harvey B. Gantt Center.

The morning in Charlotte was spent in ‘code camps’ where local software developers taught courses in various programming languages. One of the code camps was taught by Addy Kapur, a Charlotte entrepreneur and founder of TimeTap, an online scheduling tool. “It was great to showcase HTML5 WebSockets in front of an eager crowd. People were eager to learn about new technologies.” said Addy at the conclusion of the day. His session included development of a websocket chat app, which you can try out here http://chat.timetap.com/websockets/chat4.xhtml

At the end of the code camps we tuned into the San Francisco presentations via streaming high-def video, where Google announced many new products and services. Some of the highlights: a new mobile operating system - Android M, a new Google Photos app providing an unlimited number of photos or videos for free, new apps to its smartwatch OS, a revamped Google Wallet app, and improved tracking tools. For a good summary of all the Google announcements see this post.

We had the opportunity to catch up with Tom Cooper, one of the participants at this year’s event. “Google I/O offered an amazing opportunity to connect with the Charlotte tech community. It's really good to have a time and place where we can find each other” said Tom.

Google’s announcement of unlimited photo & video storage, backed up, searchable and accessible on any device was very well received by the Charlotte audience. One attendee said "Now I've got a place where I can put all those photos I have sitting on my 1TB external drive." One other takeaway is that the Google team is making a big bet on IOS in addition to Android. Tom said “I think that shows that they don't want to miss out on the data and potential consumers who are part of the Apple ecosystem. Quite a contrast to Apple's philosophy.”

Several of the Google executives making keynote presentations were women, highlighting that a gender-inclusive tech event is possible. Quartz wrote an excellent post on that subject here. Our hosts for Google I/O Extended in Charlotte were Mary Ellen Player and Jess George, leaders of the local Google Fiber team.

After the main presentations from San Francisco, Charlotte held a panel discussion on Entrepreneurship in the city. James Stewart of DetailedBlock.com facilitated the discussion, and the panelists included: Valerie Truesdale - Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, Paul Wetenhall - Ventureprise, Adam Hill - Packard Place, James Huston - Red Ventures, and Jordan Carey - Hackerspace Charlotte. "Being part of the Google I/O panel was an exciting experience" said James. "The range of topics and viewpoints covered the many different approaches making this city one of the best ecosystems for entrepreneurs. I am honored I was able to guide the discussion."

Two highlights from the panel were CMS’ inclusion of entrepreneurship in the core strategy for developing middle school and high school students, and UNC-Charlotte’s grant to expand their I-Corps program helping entrepreneurs test product demand. Paul remarked that there is a shift in Charlotte from growing developer talent for the banks, to growing developer talent for high growth startups. The Charlotte Observer wrote this story about the panel, emphasizing that while Charlotte is making progress, more work needs to be done to develop web talent in the city.

A good number of the participants stayed to network at the after-party, where wine, beer, and food encouraged further conversation (see pictures below). Thank you to Google for bring I/O Extended to Charlotte! We’re already looking forward to next year’s event.

Charlotte Joins Broadband Infrastructure Conference

Charlotte participants in Broadband Infrastructure Videoconference

Baltimore, Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia have been holding a series of peer Rustbelt city meetings to exchange information on community and economic development strategies. The May 15 topic was Broadband and Digital Technology: Infrastructure of the Future. They wanted to expand the conversation to include a Sunbelt city, so Charlotte joined the rustbelt series this month.

Leaders from each city attended a videoconference focusing on broadband and digital access —the so-called “new infrastructure”—as an economic development tool and community builder. The discussion on economic development included financing models, public-private partnerships, and what has/hasn’t worked in each city. Community development discussion included the goals of each city, strategies being used, and how broadband can serve as a community builder.

Bill Callahan, Director of Connect your Community 2.0, summarized a presentation on the broadband divide in Cleveland, and how it is correlated to income levels. Detroit and Cleveland were the two worst-connected cities in the report, each having less than 50% of households with fixed broadband subscriptions. For comparison Charlotte has roughly 80% of households with fixed broadband subscriptions (data from 2013 U.S. Census Bureau).

Charlotte meeting participants included the City of Charlotte, Knight Foundation, Foundation for the Carolinas. CPCC, Charlotte Housing Authority, Queens University, Media Democracy Fund, CMS, the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, and Charlotte Hearts Gigabit. Charlotte is the only one of the cities in this conference to be a Google Fiber city, and our conversations have moved past the point of if we were getting broadband infrastructure, to how we will use the infrastructure for maximum benefit.

Charlotte shared our Digital Inclusion efforts and the bi-weekly city steering committee meetings focusing on the initiative (note: Charlotte Hearts Gigabit is on the steering committee). As we’ve heard from Kansas City, a successful Internet economy is 90% sociology and 10% technology. High speed fiber cannot reach its full potential if large segments of society are excluded from its benefits.

We were pleased to be included in the cross-city conference on broadband, and sharing our efforts on digital inclusion. Look for more updates on this important initiative as the months unfold.

Note: After this event was held, Google Fiber and NTEN announced $1M in funding to support Digital Inclusion Fellowship positions in 8 cities. In Charlotte they announced funding for two positions; one position for Charlotte Mecklenburg Library and one position for the Urban League of Central Carolinas.

Gigabit Cities Live Highlights Demand

Economic Development panel - Gigabit Cities Live, Atlanta GA May 14, 2015

We just returned from Light Reading's first Gigabit Cities Live event in Atlanta and were blown away by the excitement over Gigabit Internet! Attendees came from all over the country. Some cities already have Gigabit Internet, others like Charlotte are waiting for ISP deployments, and yet others are still trying to get an ISP interested in building in their city.

The conference had two tracks - 1) network infrastructure and 2) economic development.

ISPs Comcast and Cox gave keynote presentations highlighting their intentions to expand services to Gigabit and beyond. Several Gigabit wireless equipment providers were also in attendance, including Mimosa and Ruckus. In the vendor area we had the opportunity to try out gigabit apps with Orange Telecom - their demos were amazing! Online gaming, immersive virtual reality applications, and Kubi, the telepresence robot were some of the highlights. ((* Note: In order to achieve gigabit internet speeds you need to have a computer, modem, and AC wi-fi router that support the speed. We recently purchased a gigabit wif-fi router for less than $100 (TP-LINK Archer C7 AC1750 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router) and have been pleased with the results.))

Two of my favorite panels were the Gigabit City CTO/CIO roundtable (Seattle and Atlanta) and The Role of Gigabit Ecosystem Development for Innovation panel (with US Ignite, ThinkBigKC, Cisco, and Orange Telecom). Both panels did a terrific job in describing how the future will look. As Herb Sih from ThinkBigKC put it the conversation has changed from "Do we need it?" to "What's Possible?"

DC74 Data Centers COO (and CHG co-founder) Alan Fitzpatrick spoke on a panel on Economic Development, along with Aaron Deacon of KCDigitalDrive and Matt Dosch from Corporium. We discussed how Gigabit infrastructure can be used to enable innovation districts, create new jobs, and create new applications. We also spoke about Digital Inclusion and citizen centric services to improve digital literacy. The City of Charlotte is very active in this area (along with Queens University). CHG participates on the city's digital inclusion steering committee.

Tracking quantitative measurements of the impact of Gigabit infrastructure is key. In the end of the day Gigabit is a speed, not a solution. The term Gigabit may lose its influence over time, but the economic impact will last for a very long time. Our North Carolina neighbors at North State stopped by to discuss how we can work together to promote economic development within the state. This lead me to proclaim on the stage:

@CltHeartsGb "Write this down - North Carolina is going to be the first gigabit state." #gigabitcities #gigabit pic.twitter.com/F3PxcSmCux

— David Martin (@askdavidm) May 14, 2015