It's good to live in Portland, Ore. CenturyLink announced it will provide high-speed Internet access with an all new gigabit network while Google, meanwhile, has been busy implementing a fiber-optic network to provide faster Internet service.
CenturyLink made the annoucement Aug. 5. The plan is to lay lines of fiber-optic cable capable of ultra-fast high speed Internet.
Google's Fiber strategy teams are considering locations in nine different major markets over the next several years, as a recent Tech Times article notes. Google also chose Portland as a jumping-off point, ahead of even New York City. The city council in Portland approved a measure to allow Google to roll out service through 2024.
Now CenturyLink wants in and the city is glad to expand offerings to increase competition and give customers more options, according to a report. The company is also working on a plan involving cable television offerings. Google also wants to offer TV to Portlanders.
The high-speed option would offer up to 1 gigabit per second Internet speed to customers in the area, according to a report. The service is already available to customers in the Seattle area, including thousands of residential and business customers. To start, the service will only be available in select neighborhoods. Those neighborhoods include Ballard, West Seattle, the Central District and Beacon Hill, and businesses in the Puget Sound area.
"In a city that boasts some of the top technology providers, it's critical that residents and businesses have leading technology available to them. We chose Portland for this next-generation technology because the city's tech-savvy customers demand it. CenturyLink is pleased to announce the continued expansion of our service offerings here in the Portland metro area to serve business and residential customers," said Chris Denzin, CenturyLink's general manager and vice president for the Portland area.
CenturyLink already offers a slower broadband Internet service in Portland, but the company is implementing a national push to add the gigabit service in more than a dozen U.S. cities. Three cities already have it.
CenturyLink is the third-largest telecommunications company in the U.S. It competes with other major ISPs like Comcast and AT&T. Now it's clear it's competing with Google as well.
