Mayor: New Seattle high-speed Internet network delayed, possibly dead
Dec 9, 2013, 5:35 PM | Updated: 10:22 pm
The highly anticipated launch of Seattle’s new high-speed Internet network has been delayed, and outgoing Mayor Mike McGinn says he’s worried Gigabit Squared won’t be able to deliver the service at all.
McGinn expressed his concerns in an interview with GeekWire Monday.
The city struck a deal with Washington, D.C. Gigabit Squared to operate the high-speed network on Seattle’s unused fiber network in 14 neighborhoods around the city.
The public-private partnership, announced one year ago, was supposed to launch early in 2014. But McGinn told GeekWire the launch has been postponed because the company is having financing problems.
“We’re now a year into it and the question is, will it work or not?” McGinn said in the interview. He acknowledged that he’s “very concerned it’s not going to work.”
A company representative told GeekWire no executives were available to comment.
Gigabit announced prices in August and said it would begin its initial roll-out of the service in the University District and Capitol Hill by the first quarter of 2014. Now, that’s been put on hold and no new dates have been announced.
The service is promised to be as much as 1,000 times faster than existing DSL and cable Internet services. If a private company can’t or won’t operate a high-speed network over Seattle’s fiber lines, McGinn says the city should consider using tax dollars and operate a network itself.
