Greenlight Members Get 100 Mbps Access; First in NC

As the NC General Assembly debates whether municipal broadband should exist, two Wilson families have become the first in North Carolina to get 100 Mbps broadband access at home.

They recently signed up through Greenlight, the City of Wilson’s community-owned broadband network.

Some lawmakers want to ban municipal broadband; if they succeed we should all get used to slow broadband until the cable company improves its network.

Here’s a news release we’re posting to our website later today:

Greenlight Members Get NC’s First 100M Access at Home
“When the price came down, we jumped on it,” say homeowners.

WILSON – North Carolina’s first homeowners with 100 Megabit-per-second symmetrical Internet access are right here in Wilson. Both are members of Greenlight, Wilson’s community-owned fiber optic network.

“The broadband service is the reason we moved to Wilson,” said Linda Worthington. She and her husband, Vince subscribed to the Greenlight’s 100 Megabits per second (Mbps) service a few days ago.

The family previously lived in Johnston County where the fastest available service was only 7Mbps. The Worthingtons moved to Wilson after realizing they could buy 40 Mbps from Greenlight for less than they were paying for a fraction of the speed from their private service provider

Greenlight recently reduced the price of its fastest Internet access.

Greenlight members can now sign up for 100 Mbps symmetrical service, meaning upload and download speeds are the same, for as low as $149.95 per month as part of a package. They also can get 60Mbps service for as low as $99.95 a month.

The Worthingtons signed up immediately for 100Mbps after the price drop. Both access the Internet extensively for their jobs, plus they enjoy online gaming.

“We always wanted the 100mps service,” she said. “When the price came down, we jumped on it.”

Greenlight’s 100mps service “blows everyone one else away,” says Lance Gilman, who recently got the service at his Saddle Run Road home.

The upgraded service allows the Gilmans to stream high-definition films from Netflix on three or four devices at the same time, he said.

For more information on Greenlight services, visit GreenlightNC.com or call 296-3374.

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Aren’t Broadband Providers the Same?

If you’ve signed up for cable or broadband service in recent years, you know that every provider claims to have “high speed” or “blazing fast” service. Those terms don’t mean much anymore.

Fiber Optic Cable - Wikimedia Commons

Wilson’s community-owned Greenlight network is all fiber optic; It’s the fastest way to provide broadband service and the only fiber optic network in Wilson.

One of the cable giants claimed to have a fiber optic network until a few weeks ago when the Better Business Bureau told it to stop.

Verizon, which challenged Time Warner Cable about its fiber claims said in the article, “”It’s unfortunate that some companies resort to making false, misleading statements about competitors. When that happens, it leaves consumers confused.”

Our community has an infrastructure asset that we built ourselves for our residents. The proceeds go back into our community. Instead of improving its network, the cable company wants NC Lawmakers to stop us from providing a better option.