HUNTSVILLE, Alabama – Huntsville Utilities officials hope to have "a possible path forward" to high-speed, fiber optic Internet service in Madison County within 90 days.

The utility isn't talking about high-speed Internet to homes yet, and it hasn't committed to any investment in a high-speed grid. But news from nearby cities shows the expansion of such service in the region and the way new companies are making use of it.

AT&T said this week it will bring high-speed Internet to the Nashville area for both residential and business users. AT&T will bring Nashville and surrounding small towns its U-verse service with "AT&T GigaPower," which offers up to 1 gigabit per second upload and download speeds. Google Fiber is also considering Nashville for high-speed service.

A conference in Chattanooga this week showcased the kinds of new companies high-speed Internet can attract or foster. Chattanooga also has 1 gigabit Internet speed and a new-business incubator for companies that can use that speed and bandwidth.

Companies in Chattanooga's program – including two from Huntsville - pitched prospective investors Tuesday. One of them, 3D Ops, is an example of the way fast movement of big packets of data can be central to a modern business plan.

3D Ops, a Chattanooga startup, wants to use 3D printers based at hospitals to build anatomical models of patients so surgeons can better plan procedures before operating. Company President Daniel Hampton showed potential investors a life-sized model of a brain that could be used to perfect a surgical plan before entering the operating room. The company uses the Internet to move modeling data on patients to its printers.

Another company, TrakTek30 of Knoxville, engineers and builds replacement parts for legacy equipment such as old construction cranes or airplanes. TrakTek30 will also move detailed designs and images among work sites via the Internet.

Huntsville Utilities hired Las Vegas consulting firm The Broadband Group in June to help it decide whether to follow Chattanooga's path and expand high-speed Internet as a public utility or seek another way forward. Chattanooga built its fiber optic capability first to create a "smart utility grid," then expanded it to residential and business customers. Chattanooga advertises its grid as a "$300 million fiber optic network and smart grid."

"We hope that we will have some sort of decision ready within 2-3 months," Huntsville Utilities spokesman Joe Gehdres said Thursday. "The reason it's taken longer than we planned is it's a huge investment with a lot of moving parts."

High-speed Internet was the top vote-getter as the most exciting potential development for Madison County in a public forum hosted by AL.com in June.

Updated at 6 p.m. to clarify that AT&T is bringing a particular level of its U-verse service to Nashville - U-verse with AT&T Gigapower.