For years, most Alexandria residents have had one choice for high-speed Internet service: Comcast.
For at least some of those residents, a new option is arriving soon.
A company called Tucows is bringing its Ting Internet service to Alexandria in the coming months. The company will be able to provide service to "tens of thousands" of locations in the city, according to a report by Fierce Telecom. "The deployment will tee it up to challenge incumbent cable provider Comcast as well as Verizon Fios, which is in the process of upgrading its copper lines in the area to fiber," the website reported.
Ting Internet is a member of the Affordable Connectivity Program and pledges to work with local affordable housing groups to subsidize fiber internet for low-income residents.
The company started building fiber networks in 2015 in Charlottesville, Virginia. Tucows, its parent company, has been building fiber networks since 2015 with is currently servicing 14 Ting Towns across the United States. Charlottesville was its first service area, followed by cities in California, Maryland, North Carolina, Idaho and Colorado. Tucows started in Toronto, Canada, and its U.S. headquarters is in Pennsylvania. It also provides domain services and telecom software.
Residents can sign up for more information about Ting Internet at internet.ting.com/launch/alexandria.
Last year, city officials broke ground on a new municipal fiber-optic communications network to increase Internet speed and reliability to city facilities.
"In addition to improving connectivity among City facilities and sites, the Municipal Fiber project will create potential partnership opportunities to expand consumer choice and increase available speeds for broadband services available in Alexandria," city officials explained last year. "With the construction of the new fiber optic network, the City is planning to seek new partners who could lease excess conduit space to provide broadband service to residents and businesses. This would allow all providers to compete fairly and would encourage providers to offer consumer services."
