By Joe Veyera
Ballard residents will soon have a faster option for internet access.
On Tuesday, Centurylink announced the launch of its gigabit fiber services in Seattle and 12 other cities across the country. In Seattle, the 1 gigabit per second service will begin rolling out in Ballard, West Seattle, Beacon Hill, and the Central District in the coming weeks. Residential customers will be able to purchase 1 Gbps (or 1,000 Mbps) service for $79.95 a month when bundled with additional, qualifying Centurylink services. Businesses throughout the Puget Sound will also be able to purchase the service.
“We believe increased broadband speeds can lead to both economic and educational growth opportunities in the Pacific Northwest,” said Brian Stading, CenturyLink region president for the Northwest in a press release. “This growth potential is supported by the trust current businesses put in CenturyLink’s services and the expansion of our fiber network is just another example of why CenturyLink is a premier supplier of technology and technology solutions in the Pacific Northwest.”
Centurylink says the 1 Gbps speed will allow customers to stream high-definition video content with little to no delays and download movies, songs and TV shows in seconds.
“Seattle is technology city, but there are a number of steps we as a city must take to remain a national leader, including bringing cutting-edge Internet service to more businesses and residents,” said Seattle Mayor Ed Murray in a release. “CenturyLink’s investment in 1-gigabit fiber is a very positive step in our city’s much larger effort to increase competition and broaden access to high-speed Internet – especially for those in underserved areas of our city.”
(Photo courtesy of Centurylink)
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I must say, refreshing to hear Ballard will soon have options besides Comcast (with the exception of the few buildings that have CondoInternet) for high speed internet.
However, my one gripe would be only disclosing the price for internet when “bundled with other services.” That has Comcast written all over it. I don’t want any bundle whatsoever, just the interwebs.
CenturyLink has non-bundled prices, but that’ll cost you $110/mo for the first year and $152/mo after that.
Oh, you KNOW Century Link is well aware of current Comcast rates and will price themselves accordingly. I suppose for those who still have a land line it might make sense to bundle. But who has those anymore? ;-)
I hope it is available everywhere in Ballard (Fremont, too, please!). Right now, in the Frelard border area we are “eligible for” 3mbps, but we can’t actually get that speed. Had Clink come out and look at things, and they actually told us we might as well stop paying for faster service because we would likely never achieve it. Too bad we had already been paying for it for a year at that point.
@donarb Jesus H. Christ! If they are going to charge that amount, it’d better include access to ESPN3, Pac-12 and all those other online sports that Comcast offers.
Why oh why won’t anybody bring anything to Magnolia? From rapid ride, to fast internet, to decent bus service… even f’ing west seattle?!
Who knew moving to f’ing west seattle would be a livestyle improvement compared to magnolia? jesus tapdancing christ.
@Rick Going to guess that you are the only one in Magnolia that wants any of that.
Also… to Rick… is Jesus tapdancing Christ a sentence or a phrase? I mean does Jesus tap-dance? and if he does , is there a dance called Christ? Well you have some nice things over there in Magnolia, and the “rapid” ride is just the #15. You should be happy that the Metro gods have overlooked you? They’ll give you “improved” service that will make you wish they hadn’t heard of your neighborhood!