PC magazine ranks Longmont third nationally for internet speeds

by Joshua Lindenstein on September 1, 2016

LONGMONT – The rollout of Longmont’s NextLight municipal broadband service continues to put the city on the map as it relates to the fastest available Internet speeds nationwide.

PC magazine this week ranked Longmont third in the country among cities with the fastest average Internet upload and download speeds based on tests conducted by the publication. Only Kansas City, Mo. — one of the seven cities where Google Fiber offers its gigabit service — and Deltona, Fla., topped Longmont on the list.

Granted, Comcast — ranked in the same analysis as the fastest among major Internet providers nationally — is still the biggest player in Longmont. But Comcast’s footprint spreads up and down Colorado’s Front Range, and no other cities in the state made the top 10 of PC Magazine’s list. So it stands to reason that NextLight is helping give Longmont an extra boost as the two compete in a way that isn’t happening in most cities around the country.

“We’re very pleased with the ratings here,” NextLight spokesman Scott Rochat said. “We’re also not particularly surprised by it.

”NextLight touts a charter-member rate for its 1-gigabit fiber-optic internet service of $49.99 per month. As the buildout of NextLight’s network continues throughout Longmont, the city-owned service so far boasts nearly 6,800 customers. But perhaps more telling is that, in areas of town where the service is available and where the city has marketed its three-month charter-rate period, Rochat said the take rate stands at 56 percent.

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About Mark Milliman

Mark Milliman is a Principal Consultant at Inphotonics Research driving the adoption and assisting local governments to plan, build, operate, and lease access open-access municipal broadband networks. Additionally, he works with entrepreneurs and venture capitalists to increase the value of their intellectual capital through the creation of strategic product plans and execution of innovative marketing strategies. With more than 22 years of experience in the telecommunications industry that began at AT&T Bell Laboratories, Mark has built fiber, cable, and wireless networks around the world to deliver voice, video, and data services. His thorough knowledge of all aspects of service delivery from content creation to the design, operation, and management of the network is utilized by carriers and equipment manufacturers. Mark conceived and developed one of the industry's first multi-service provisioning platform and is multiple patent holder. He is active in the IEEE as a senior member. Mark received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Iowa State University and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.
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