Gigabites: Ting Scouts NC for New Gig SitesGigabites: Ting Scouts NC for New Gig Sites

In this week's edition of Gigabites, gigabit provider Ting looks to expand into new markets, Google takes to San Antonio and more.

One might argue that North Carolina already has its fair share of gigabit service providers, what with AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) and Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) duking it out for broadband bragging rights in the state. However, there are still plenty of North Carolina communities not on the list for gigabit service, and Toronto-based Ting may be interested in filling in some of the gaps. The Triangle Business Journal reports that Ting is looking at expanding its gigabit offering to five or six new markets in 2016. Currently, the company has deployed gigabit service only in the cities of Charlottesville, Va. and Westminster, Md., but Ting also offers mobile service nationwide, giving it a broader customer base to leverage. Elliot Noss, the CEO of Ting's parent company Tucows , was a bit coy about where the gigabit service would land next, but he did hint that North Carolina is attractive because of a "higher level of awareness" around fiber-based broadband. For NC cities that don't already have AT&T and Google at the door, Ting would be a welcome guest. Plenty of sites are vying to be Google's next gigabit city, but San Antonio just got word that it's next in line. Google announced this week that it will bring Google Fiber Inc. to the Texas town, making it the company's largest fiber city to date. Google said it will enter the design phase for the new network shortly, and then move on to laying down 4,000 miles of fiber cable. Network construction recently began at other Google sites in Atlanta, parts of North Carolina, Nashville and Salt Lake City. Google Fiber is up and running in Kansas City, Provo, Utah and Austin. (See Gigabites: Google Fiber Forges On.) Local officials are touting a new 1 Gig service in Silver Spring, Maryland, and in this deployment case, the connection is wireless rather than wired. The county government is working on a plan to bring gigabit services to numerous municipal buildings and local businesses. This week, the county announced that the first link is in place, providing a gigabit connection between a local data center and the Silver Spring Innovation Center. FiberTower Corp. is making the wireless connection possible, using rooftop-mounted dishes to direct wireless signals. A demo of the service reportedly suffered some hiccups, but FiberTower assured observers that the gigabit connection is 99.999% reliable. — Mari Silbey, Senior Editor, Cable/Video, Light Reading