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Downloads and Internet speeds in Bryan-College Station will be 10 times faster by next year after Suddenlink chose the area to be the first in the Southwest and possibly the nation to receive its ultra high-speed Internet service.

Suddenlink, which serves 45,000 residential and business customers in the area, announced in August it would roll out the $250 million "Operation: GigaSpeed," one gigabit-per-second Internet, for all of its customers by the end of 2017. But customers in Bryan-College Station will receive it by summer of 2015, a huge difference for business, said James Benham, a College Station city councilman and president of technology company JBKnowledge.

"How many economic development decisions are made in a period of two years?" Benham asked Monday during the announcement of the partnership at the University Center at Texas A&M. "How many economic decisions are made in a period of three months? How many companies decide whether to stay or go to Austin because they have gigabit with Google fiber?"

The speed will be 10 times faster than the current Internet speed offered by Suddenlink, said Dave Gilles, Suddenlink's senior vice president of operations for the West region. The price for the service will be about $70 per month Gilles said, compatible with similar service in Austin.