For those wondering when the next phase of the City of Bridgeport’s high speed internet project – Gigaport – would get started, the date was announced this morning at the Bridgeport Development Authority meeting. And there was also even more good news for those technically savvy that want the latest the internet has to offer.

 

“The good news is that the loan on the project is closed. The bad news is that you’re now $5 million in debt,” joked BDA attorney Dean Ramsey.

 

The $5 million includes a $3 million loan previously secured for the project from the West Virginia EDA. The final $2 million loan, which was most recently closed, is $2 million loan secured from MVB. With the money in place, the project – which sees the Development Authority securing the loan – being spearheaded by Bridgeport-based internet service provider Citynet get started.

 

Citynet will be responsible for repaying the loan. It will be paid for by those signing up for the service. Citynet, not the City of Bridgeport or the BDA, will bear the risk for the loan.

 

As has been spelled out before, the next area to receive the super high speed internet, the next area of the city to get the internet beyond the test area a section of Johnson Avenue will be determined by city residents. Pomeroy spelled out recently that a defined neighborhood will be the first to go based on the number of individuals that sign up and saturate an area with a certain percentage.

 

In order to make the determination, Pomeroy said Citynet will design a system creating roughly 20 fiber panels, or hoods, throughout the city (they are digital not actual standing structures that are part of a Web site) that will have a fairly equal breakdown of every city home eligible to receive the service. The panels will not reflect businesses, but will consist of roughly 288 residential units per hood.

 

Once a group gets what Pomeroy has called “x” penetration through signing up, the expansion will begin there followed by the next to reach the same penetration. This morning, Pomeroy said the sign ups and the Web site will officially be launched July 2.

 

Along with being able to do it on line, Citynet will have a huge presence at the city’s “Picnic in the Park” set for July 2. In conjunction with the project to sign up people, Pomeroy said Citynet will also host a hog roast at the event starting at 4 p.m., which is free of charge.

 

In conjunction with that, people will be able to see just how fast the new service can be. Pomeroy said City Park will be wired with the Gigaport service.

 

“It will be permanent WiFi at City Park,” said Pomeroy. “Our hope as we expand from there to (Wayne) Jamison Field for use there.”

 

While that is certainly good news, what may be even better news is that as part of the Gigaport roll out, eventually phone service and television service will also be offered.

 

“Any of the IP offerings such as Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Prime, any of that content or similar content, you can get in our test area now or the areas where we’ll be installing the high speed internet,” said Pomeroy. “By the start of the year, we plan on offering that and a full television lineup – and phone service – as part of a bundled package.”

 

“We understand the need of bundling and we understand a lot of folks want to see one provider provide all of those services,” Pomeroy continued. “We’ve made a commitment and an investment to deliver IPTV (internet protocol television) as part of the Gigaport project.”

 

As mentioned, it won’t be available now in the test area. It also won’t be available once the next “hood” area is done in 2016.

 

“While we won’t be launching until the beginning of the year, when folks go to sign up on the Web site, we will have picked the channel lineup so folks going will now what channels they may or may not want,” said Pomeroy.

 

When asked if the television offering will include local channels, Pomeroy said that it would. That would include network affiliated stations.

 

The "Gigaport" project is a play on words. It combines the gigabit speed in conjunction with the name Bridgeport. Bridgeport is the first city in West Virginia to initiate a project of this nature. Pomeroy has said this will provide internet service 100 times faster than anything currently available in Bridgeport.

 

Editor's Note: Drew Pomeroy explains the latest on the Gigaport project to the Development Authority this morning, while the fiber used as part of the project is shown below.