- Huntsville will take the first steps in January to becoming a "GIG City" with high-speed, fiber-optic Internet service available to businesses and homes, Mayor Tommy Battle said today. The city will issue a Request for Proposals (RFP) for a vendor to start the process, Battle said at his annual State of the City address.

"Part of making Huntsville a vibrant, globally-connected community is looking at our connectivity," Battle said. "It's all about big data and speed. We need a telecommunications infrastructure that's bigger, faster, more reliable and affordable."

Battle said fiber-optic cable has become a basic city infrastructure. "Electricity, water, sewer and roads are the infrastructure that has taken us to the 21st Century," Battle said. "Fiber is also an important infrastructure component."

High speed fiber optic cable in a Chattanooga Internet service center. (Lee Roop/lroop@al.com)

Fiber-optic cable works by sending laser-fired pulses of light down hundreds of strands of hair-thin glass. The light pulses are converted at the home or office into the electrical signals computers and other equipment can use.

The ability to move big data at high speed is vital to large companies and institutions such as the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology, where gene studies can involve data from hundreds of subjects, and companies routinely moving and handling large files such as medical record companies, insurance companies and Internet graphics companies.

Bringing high-speed Internet to Huntsville was voted the most exciting idea for Huntsville's future in a poll taken earlier this year for AL.com's "What works: Regionalism" project. An Internet petition seeking the service had more than 1,000 signees.

Battle said the goal is to bring fiber first to businesses and eventually homes "allowing Huntsville to become a GIG City." He cited Chattanooga as a model, where high-speed Internet is attracting entrepreneurs looking for the ability to move massive amounts of data at high speeds.

Battle said he wants an available range of Internet speed for homes of 100 MB per second to 1,000 MB (1 gig). Typical home Internet service now is around 20-25 Mbps (megabits per second). At 20 Mbps, the mayor said, it would take 10 minutes to download a 2-hour movie and more than 30 minutes if the movie is high-definition. With gigabit speed, the download would take 8 seconds and 25 seconds for high-definition.

Battle said Huntsville Utilities "will not be a direct responder to the RFP" - meaning the utility will not seek to provide the service directly as Chattanooga's public utility does. However, the mayor's office said that, if no "suitable" proposals come from private companies, the "city would explore a public entity like Huntsville utilities providing the infrastructure."

Suitable proposals would include a commitment "to serve many areas of the community to ensure that even underserved areas are covered," the mayor's office said.