Crain’s Detroit Business is reporting that real estate mogul, Lebron James’ boss, founder and chairman of Quicken Loans Inc., Dan Gilbert announced the formation of a new Detroit-based high-speed Internet provider to bring service to downtown Detroit – Rocket Fiber LLC. Mr. Gilbert (@cavsdan) tweeted:
Yes, it’s true @RocketFiber coming to downtown Detroit in near future. Fast as Google or faster. Details in a few weeks pic.twitter.com/fTPRSbauoN
Mr. Gilbert formed Rocket Fiber LLC in 2014. He called the company a “community investment initiative.” Matt Cullen, president and CEO of Rock Ventures, called the new network “the generational leap forward” – leapfrogging where the city is at this point. It’s starting in the downtown and hopefully spreading out to the neighborhoods. There is some interest along the riverfront.
The first wave of installations will happen in the downtown area between the Lodge on the west, I-375 to the east, and I-75 to the north. Rocket Fiber will expand services to residents and businesses in Midtown Detroit along the Woodward corridor.
Crain’s reports that construction is already happening on the “advanced fiber-optic network.” The system will use hard-wired fiber-optic lines that will be connected to buildings. Users will connect devices in their homes or businesses by either an Ethernet cable or WI-Fi. An outdoor Wi-Fi offering also will be available, Rock Ventures said.
The effort is not entirely altruistic. Undoubtedly part of the project will be to connect the Quicken campus downtown to the new Corktown technical center Bedrock is building at Rosa Parks and Porter which includes a 10,000-square-foot server room.
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Mr. Gilbert is doing something ATT or Comcast could or would not do. – I worked on a job in the City to bring in 12 AT&T (T) POTS and Comcast (CMCSA) Business circuits.
– OMG – It took ATT a week to get the last three POTS lines in and Comcast projected 6 months to install a city block away from Ford Field and 100 yards from a known working drop. (and now they are going to stop service in Detroit). Thankfully 123.net was able to get the customer up, working on time and budget.
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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.
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