Huntsville takes its next step toward becoming a GIG City Thursday when the City Council is expected to approve a franchise agreement with Gulf Coast fiber-optic cable company Southern Light. The company has said it can have fiber-optic cable to the first commercial customers within six months.

Meanwhile, city officials are reviewing 13 proposals for providing high-speed fiber-optic cable to businesses and home alike. They were submitted in April after the city asked potential partners for ideas to upgrade Internet service.

Southern Light does not provide content, but its cable network links businesses needing to move large amounts of data quickly and allows Internet service providers (ISPs) to provide other content. The company based in Mobile says its cable can move data even faster than the 1 gigabit per second speeds the city wants made available to all businesses and residents in the city. It has nearly 5,000 miles of cable now linking businesses and public entities on the Gulf Coast.

A company spokesman wouldn't discuss details of the company's plan today, but Chief Operating Officer Eric Daniels said earlier this year that it typically starts running fiber cable downtown where customers are clustered and distances are smaller.

City Business Relations Officer Harrison Diamond, who is spearheading the city's Gig City plan, also declined today to name the companies that responded to the city's request for information about their fiber interest and capabilities. But he said some of the names would be familiar, and other companies have contacted the city since to express interest.

The companies that met the original April 24 deadline presented "not only interest but an early idea of plan for how they could do it," Diamond said. The city is now evaluating those ideas and will narrow the list for further discussions.

The agreement before the council Thursday night allows the company access to city infrastructure such as utility poles and sets fees for that access.