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Mpls. Soon To Have Fastest Internet Speed In The World?

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Move over Zurich, Tokyo, and New York City. Minneapolis is soon to be the top in the world for high-speed internet. Minnesota residents will soon have access to the fastest internet speed in the world.

The rate of speed: 10,000 megabits, or 10 gigabits per second, to be exact.

Here's an idea of what that 10 gigabit speed means.  For those of you who like to download movies, normally it takes you about the length of the movie to download. This speed would download your favorite movie in less than a second. There is a disclaimer: High- speed internet is only available to about 30,000 households in Minneapolis.

US Internet, the Minnetonka-based company providing this new service, has installed fiber lines in a small portion of Minneapolis thus far.

"This high speed isn't for everyone," said Joe Caldwell, Co-CEO of US Internet. He followed up by explaining that this rate of speed is geared toward someone who has a home office or runs a small business.

The price: About $399 a month to get this warp speed rate. However, the company's one gigabit per month option will cost your right around $65. Caldwell said right now, the average internet speed across the country is about 30 megabits, which ranks right around 40th in the world.

"This is like going from 30 to 10,000 miles per hour," said Caldwell when describing the change in speed. US Internet has been a provider of the internet to the city of Minneapolis for the last six years.

Caldwell said the company has plans to install fiber lines that would allow this faster service across the entire I-494/I-694 corridor of the Twin Cities. However, that will take five to six years.

So what does this mean for the future of internet across the Twin Cities and at home use?

"That's what this kind of infrastructure really enables, that we can't even imagine what kind of technologies what kind of applications this will open for us and it's going to be right here (Minneapolis)," said Andrew Johnson, Minneapolis City Council Member for Ward 12.

Until Tuesday, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Zurich all had higher speed internet than any U.S. cities. While nationally, Kansas City, Los Angeles and New York are at the top, now Minneapolis will soon be as well.

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