Installation of internet capabilities far beyond what's available to most Americans is underway at 104 homes in the Hestler Court area.
The neighborhood borders Case Western Reserve University, long a national leader in technological breakthroughs involving connectivity. The university hopes to expand the project, as additional funding becomes available.
Many residents don't currently have 'any' internet access - but to be included in the transformational program... all they'll have to do is answer questions about how they use their new services.
School I-T Vice President Lev Gonick says this opportunity to see what fiber optic cable supplied internet can mean to the masses is as much a social experiment, as it is a technological one.
LEV GONICK:
"It's really trying to understand how the internet economy and the internet society that we live in can really impact local folks."
The projected speed of on line connections for the test group is one gigabyte per second, more than 200 times faster – on average - than what's delivered nationally by most broadband providers.
Gonick says it offers the chance to observe how people in neighborhoods can use big broadband.
LEV GONICK:
"3-5 years from now we'll say, 'Wow that really was the 1st effort at smart housing', and all of the services; whether they're health or education or energy or safety, in which it's really connecting all of the houses to each other, rather than actually and neccessarily just the people sitting on computer screens."
The CASE-developed effort has already been cited by the National Broadband Plan as revolutionary, and as such, will be closely watched when it's fully implemented, in mid-May.
