Rocket Fiber, Dan Gilbert's new lightning speed Internet service in Downtown Detroit, provided details Thursday of its new service and its new digs on Woodward Avenue in downtown Detroit, across from John Varvatos clothing store.
Rocket Fiber says it plans to provide Internet service to businesses and residences in downtown Detroit beginning Jan. 1, with hopes of expanding to Midtown in the second quarter of 2016 and then to the remainder of the city and beyond to the suburbs. It also plans to offer a TV service through the Internet, beginning sometime in early 2016.
Christina Mathes, a spokesperson for Rocket Fiber, said since early October, Rocket Fiber has been testing the service in two multi-family residential buildings and three office buildings.
The prices: $70 a month for one gigabit for residential service, which is 10 to 20 times faster than most services, and $299 for the 10 gigabit option, which is 1,000 times faster, the company said. The residential plans require no contract.
Businesses can get up to 100 gigabit service. Pricing for those plans will be customized, and the TV service will be competitive with cable, Mathes said.
“There is a growing demand for super-fast Internet as the world becomes more and more digital. Everyone and everything is online now, and most industries rely on digital technology,” Rocket Fiber Chief Technology Officer and Co-founder Randy Foster said in a press release.
The company's website describes the TV service this way:
Cutting-edge HDTV with all of your favorite channels and on demand programming. Our advanced internet protocol TV (IPTV) system will completely change the way you view and interact with your television, tablet, and smart phone.
Mathes said that Rocket Fiber has so far wired up nearly two-dozen office buildings and several residential ones, and is ready to turn the service on in those buildings in January.
The new company moved last week from temporary digs to 1505 Woodward Avenue.
For service, people can call 844-847-6253 or go to the website.
