Gigabit broadband internet is coming to Seattle, courtesy of Gigabit Squared. The project is still in its very early stages and, at this point, Gigabit Squared has just been given permission to raise capital to begin the initial deployment. As a demonstration, the company plans to build out a network for more than 50,000 households and businesses in 12 Seattle neighborhoods. If successful and further development is approved, fiber transmitters will be placed on top of 38 buildings across the city, allowing those outside of the demonstration area to enjoy the high-speed connection. Once completed, the Gigabit Seattle network also hopes to "provide next generation wireless cloud services" to the 12 neighborhoods. No timelines have been specified for the project as of yet, so it may be quite a while before the service actually rolls out.

Seattle is the second city chosen for Gigabit Square's Gigabit Neighborhood Gateway Program, which plans to deploy gigabit speed networks at six locations across the United States — Chicago was chosen as the first city in October. Outside of colleges and government buildings, gigabit networks are scarce, with Google's recently launched Fiber service in Kansas City sitting as one of the few available for public use. Sonic.net announced last year that it would deploy gigabit internet in San Francisco, although that project has yet to come into fruition after hitting some regulatory and permit-related delays.