1515 Walnut
Could telco providers use the gigabit infrastructure to develop new product lines?
Could building owners and developers use the gig to pilot entirely new residential/retail VoIP services to their tenants?
A quiet little story involving Kansas City-based provider Avid and a building in the Crossroads District points to both of those things being possible.
According to a recent Avid blog post, Jay Tomlinson, owner of 1515 Walnut, has mixed his Fiber with his phone lines throughout his new apt/retail/condo building.
After wiring the entire building with Google Fiber, Tomlinson then called in Avid to supply phone service and other services connected to the system, such as fire alarm and elevator line. All of it, the blog reports, is delivered over the gig:
The voice and other analog phone lines are all carried over the Google Fiber network and are served by Avid’s central office located in Downtown Kansas City. Our testing of those lines show that they are highly reliable and high quality connections owing to the high capacity of the Google Fiber connection and the low transmission delay between the building and Avid’s central office (for the technically inclined: latency of less than 10 milliseconds with 0% packet loss).
In addition to saving Tomlinson $100/mo over his previous provider, this model provides a unique look into the future of how the gigabit can add value to city living.
By providing a mixed-use building with a sleek backbone of connectivity, it’s helping a developer cut costs and provide better service to his residents, some of whom are themselves entrepreneurs. And it’s a boon to a small local telco looking for ways to remain competitive.
Granted, we don’t know if piloting a new model of VoIP is Avid’s particular play here, but it’s an interesting idea nonetheless.