What’s a ‘Gig’ … and why do I want one?

Internet connections are like the electricity in our homes: We’d rather not know about it. Like water and sewer, we want to know it’s there when and where we want it. In the case of the Internet, the “pipes” are fiber-optic or copper, and the content is data in the form of ones and zeros, or “bits.” The current ultimate in Internet speed is a giga-bit-per-second; a “gig” is one billion, so we’re talking a billion bits per second. That’s a lot of data. 

The speed of your Internet connection is important because it determines how many people can be connected at one time. It all started in the ’90s with dial-up connections on regular phone lines that provided up to 56 Kbps (kilo-bits-per-second). Today, cable is capable of providing up to 300 Mbps (mega-bits-per-second) although a typical home has 10-30 Mbps connection, over 300 times more data per second than the early dial-up lines. To add some context here, let’s think about all those movies we’re streaming (or would like to stream). To stream a movie requires at least a 1 Mbps connection; Netflix recommends 3 Mbps. To download that two-hour movie from Amazon or iTunes will take two hours at 1 Mbps but less than 10 minutes on a typical 20 Mbps cable connection. Tired of waiting? A gigabit connection would get it done in 12 seconds!

You may think that waiting 10 minutes for your movie to download is no big deal. However, the number of people on each cable affects the speed that’s available for each connection. Getting information on an Internet connection is similar to getting your car onto a highway. The highway speed limit may be 60 miles per hour, but cars could be backed up on entrance ramps as they wait for an opening.

Similarly, when you click on a website, your computer needs to find an opening to send the request to that site. The website has to receive and answer the message and the answer also must wait for an opening to send the message back. The speed you actually experience on your computer is a combination of the time to get on the network and the speed of the network itself.

If you are the only one in your area using a 1 Mbps connection, your movie will have no delays. With 100 others also using a 1 Mbps connection, any single person’s share of it will be smaller, and the actual speed at which you can access your movie will be slower. By comparison, a 100 Mbps connection can often satisfy several hundred simultaneous connections. Like highway congestion, Internet connections are a combination of high and low speed conditions which cannot be known ahead of time, so “faster is better” is the one dependable condition for both highways and the Internet.

Fiber-optic cable provides the fastest connections, usually around 10 Gbps (gigabits-per-second). Cable TV and other communication companies generally use them to bring data to major streets. From there, slower copper (coaxial) cables connect individual buildings and homes. These providers limit the speed of connections below their full potential partly for practical capacity reasons and partly because they can charge content providers like Netflix and Amazon for higher speeds. 

Your desire to watch the latest “Game of Thrones” aside, if your doctor wants to send an MRI or CT scan, they’ll be waiting the equivalent of receiving three movies. Have you ever tried to email someone a single movie? If so, they’re probably still waiting to get it. 

Even larger volumes of data are required for software updates, architectural design, 3D printing, online learning, credit card processing and many other business functions. Businesses that rely on moving huge amounts of data at high speeds are a fast growing sector, which in turn is driving demand for gigabit speed. Since these businesses are often not tied to a physical location, the attractions of a country lifestyle and lower home and office costs can bring new employment to rural areas like ours where high-speed connections are available. 

Realizing the need to provide gigabit connections for municipal and public services, the state of Connecticut installed a $90 million fiber optic system called the Nutmeg Network, which connects all 169 state municipalities (including our Northwest Corner) and operates two separate networks. Police, fire and emergency services are connected to the Public Service Data Network (PSDN). Schools are connected to the 1Gbps Connecticut Education Network (CEN); about half the state’s libraries are already connected, and town halls can connect if they choose. 

Many children go home to connections of 1/1000th of their school connection speed, and in some cases, to no connectivity at all. For these students, the local library is a primary resource for getting the information they need to complete their homework. So far, only about half of the libraries are connected with the remainder waiting in line for state funding to complete the program. While all our schools are connected, only the David M. Hunt Library in Falls Village is connected to Gbps CEN fiber. Some libraries have opted to speed the process by providing their own funding to connect immediately.

So, why should we care about gigs?  We in Salisbury appreciate the pace of country life — and we all want to maintain and even improve it for our businesses, our children and our community. High-speed communication can foster job growth, facilitate access to both online entertainment and education, and ensure that all our children are well-equipped as global citizens. Next time I’ll review the various connections available in the Northwest Corner and what can be done to improve them.

Frank Shinneman is a retired technology entrepreneur currently researching Internet connectivity in the Northwest Corner and posting news on Twitter @Fiber4NWCT. He and his wife, Cindy, live in Lakeville.