LightSpeed Looks to Plug the Gigabit Gap
Communities that fall into that in-between category, then, are counting on companies such as LightSpeed Communications LLC if they want to become Gigabit Cities. LightSpeed is based in East Lansing, Michigan, and is currently building out a gigabit network to serve portions of the Greater Lansing region. The area in and around Lansing, Michigan’s capital, has a population of about 460,000 people and sits about 90 miles northwest of Detroit.
Incumbents AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) and Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK) have yet to announce any fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) initiatives in the community, and Lansing failed to woo Google Fiber Inc. — though Google’s efforts did draw attention to the demand and the business model of providing a fat pipe to homes. (See Is Google Good for Gigabit?)
“Google has proved that there is an enormous market for people who just want bandwidth,” says Jason Schreiber, co-founder and CEO of LightSpeed. Schreiber and his fellow founders hail from regional optical network operator Arialink, which was swallowed up by Zayo Group Inc. (NYSE: ZAYO) in 2012. (See How Zayo Spent $3.7B on Acquisitions.)