By Klint Finley
Wired
EVER HEARD OF Salisbury, North Carolina? Well, it’s now on the map as the first in the nation to offer 10 gigabit-per-second-internet connections to its citizens. The new service, revealed yesterday, is nearly 1,000 times as fast as the average internet connection in the US. A local private college is the first customer to receive the service.
Today, few people can take advantage of even a one-gigabit connection, let alone 10 gigabits. Google, for example, floated the idea of a 10-gigabit service last year, but has remained focused on rolling out its 1-gigabit Google Fiber service first.
So what does Salisbury—a town of 33,000 nestled between North Carolina’s largest city Charlotte and the state’s Research Triangle—need with a 10-gigabit internet service? For one, it could be a boon to businesses. Salisbury is home to the corporate headquarters of the southern supermarket chain Food Lion and the soft drink company Carolina Beverage Corporation, best known as the maker of Cheerwine. And colleges can always use more bandwidth students flock back to school this month.
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