Bringing The World Home To You

© 2024 WUNC North Carolina Public Radio
120 Friday Center Dr
Chapel Hill, NC 27517
919.445.9150 | 800.962.9862
91.5 Chapel Hill 88.9 Manteo 90.9 Rocky Mount 91.1 Welcome 91.9 Fayetteville 90.5 Buxton 94.1 Lumberton 99.9 Southern Pines 89.9 Chadbourn
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Wilson, N.C.: The Self-Described 'Gigabit City'

Optical fiber used for high speed internet.
Michel Tronchetti

The city of Wilson has finished installing a fiber optic Internet system.  It's the first such project in North Carolina that will provide the city of about 50,000 people with ultra-high speed Internet. 

Wilson runs its own broadband provider called Greenlight Community Broadband.  Greenlight general manager Will Aycock says the fiber optic system is running the city's services and available to residents.

"We're able to support the surveillance cameras and different sensors throughout the community to make us a smarter city.  Certainly, we're able to support many institutions here such as schools and libraries," Aycock says.

"It's really about removing the barriers between our residents, our institutions and the Internet so that people have all the bandwidth they need."

Aycock claims the new system has been attractive to outsiders.

"We're actually seeing folks deciding to move to Wilson from other areas because they want access to this next-generation network," he says.

"People even decide, if they're going to build a house, where to build a house.  For instance, radiologists want to be on the network because it helps them to more efficiently do their jobs from home."

The fiber optic system allows connections of up to a Gigabit per second, which is about 100 times faster than the average high-speed Internet connection.  Aycock says the system has cost about $35 million.

Will Michaels is WUNC's Weekend Host and Reporter.
Related Stories
More Stories