Melrose Is Minnesota’s First ‘Gigabit City’

In life, there is always the issue of disparity, and where gulfs exist between the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’. I suppose to a certain extent, you could also throw in the issue of Internet connectivity as well. For example, most of Minnesotans are unable to enjoy home Internet connections that are 1Gbps in speed – which happens to (theoretically speaking, although it is never the case in real life) be around 100 times faster compared to a standard broadband hookup. On paper, this is not feasible due to the cost and complications that arise. However, for those living in Melrose, Minnesota, which happens to be around 100 miles northwest of the Twin Cities, they will be able to enjoy gigabit Internet connections from this week onwards.

In fact, Melrose, with a population of just 4,000 or so, is going to declare itself as the state’s first “gigabit city.” Part of this unique status coming about was due to a challenge issued by the Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski earlier this year, asking for at least one gigabit city to emerge in each U.S. state by the time 2015 rolls around.

Edwin Kee
Categories: Computers
Tags: gigabit, internet