对速度的渴求 极速网络连接对城市的馈赠

不劳而获的美事最能使官员们卑躬屈膝了。谷歌公司欲在美国的一座城市部署1Gb光纤宽带网络以供居民使用，消息一出，市长们便竞相申请，屈身事人，要知道美国的平均网速还不到它的1／150.德卢斯市使尽浑身解数，争取名额，萨拉索塔更是亮出了杀手锏。托皮卡市市长将市名改为"谷歌市"（仅一天时间）。最终堪萨斯城中选，下个月该市市民便可以享用月租70美元的极速网络服务了。

But that service will not be available to all Kansas Citians. Instead, Google has divided Kansas City into 204 districts (which it annoyingly insists on calling "fibrehoods"), has invited consumers who want the one-gigabit service to register in advance, and will deliver service to the 46 areas with the highest concentration of interested consumers. Only one American city offers one-gigabit internet connections to every resident, and it is not tech-savvy San Francisco or university-laden Boston, but Chattanooga, Tennessee's fourth-largest city, nestled in the Appalachian foothills.

但是这项服务并不对所有的市民开放。相反，谷歌将堪萨斯城划分成204个区（谷歌坚持使用别扭的"网区"称谓），并且诚邀需要1GB网络服务的用户提前登记，只有关注度最高的46个地区中感兴趣的用户才能获得该项服务。目前，美国只有一座城市为每一位居民提供1Gb的宽带连接，它既不是高新技术城旧金山，也不是城波士顿，而是位于阿巴拉契亚山脚的察特怒加市（田纳西州第四大城市）。

EPB of Chattanooga, the municipally-owned electricity company, branched out into telecoms service a little over a decade ago and soon afterwards decided to modernise the city's power grid. Starting in 2008, with the help of $111.5m in federal stimulus funds and another $169m raised through bonds, EPB laid over 6,000 miles of fibre-optic cable. The network became fully operational last spring; it covers EPB's full service area, roughly 170,000 homes and businesses in urban, suburban and rural areas, and it delivers video and telephone service as well.

EPB是察特怒加市的一所市营电力公司，大约一年前，公司开始拓展经营范围，着力发展电信服务，不久便将实现全市电网的现代化提上了议事日程。08年伊始，依靠1.115亿美元的联邦刺激基金和1.69亿美元的债券资金,EPB公司铺设的光纤电缆总长度达到6000多英里。去年春天，这套网络才完全投入使用；它覆盖了EPB公司所有的服务区域，包括城市，郊区和乡村近17万所商、民用住房。

But even though in practice someone in a trailer park on the side of a mountain could enjoy Palo-Alto-like internet speeds, relatively few Chattanoogans subscribe to the full gigabit service. EPB estimates that nine residents and two businesses pay the hefty $350-per-month charge. Most use a 30-megabit-per-second (mps) connection, which is still far faster than the American average of 6.7mps.

尽管从理论上讲，住在阿巴拉契亚山下家庭拖车停车场的居民可以享用如同帕洛阿尔托市般的高速网络，但相对来说，在察特怒加市，鲜有市民办理1Gb网络服务。据EPB公司估计，只有9名市民和两家企业交付了每月高达350美元的网络使用费用。大多数人都还在使用30兆每秒的网络，可是比起6.7兆每秒的美国网络平均值，已经很快了。

Even so, Harold DePriest, EPB's boss, estimates his company's video and internet division will become profitable this year. Mr DePriest's case for building Chattanooga's fibre network (and the reason EPB received its stimulus funds) had nothing to do with residential users; instead, that network forms the backbone of one of America's most extensive municipal smart grids. And Chattanooga, a little manufacturing city that 40-odd years ago had America's filthiest air, is reinventing itself as a haven for tech entrepreneurs—a "Silicon Holler".

即便如此,EPB总裁哈罗德•迪普斯特仍认为今年的视频和网络服务有利可图。迪普斯特部署光纤网络（这也是EPB公司能够获得刺激资金的原因）的初衷并不是供居民使用；相反，这个网络是美国现在范围最广的市政智能电网的核心组成部分。40多年前的工业小城察特怒加市，曾经是美国空气质量最差的城市，如今却摇身一变，成为科技企业家择善而居的理想之地——所谓的"硅召"。

This suggests that the true benefits of municipal high-speed networks are not the consumer-friendly baubles such as high-speed video downloads, HDTV and the like, but the vast range of possibilities they open. Over the fibre network is a wireless mesh that allows government, so often wary of innovation, to try new approaches. Police in Chattanooga have vastly expanded their communications and mobile data analysis. Traffic lights will soon be able to respond in real time to changing traffic patterns. Rubbish can be collected more efficiently. EPB can avoid, or minimise, power cuts during storms, and can charge its customers more accurately and transparently. This sort of network can improve a city's operations while broadening its tax base. Results like that are well worth a dunk in a shark tank.

这表明市政高速网络真正的收益并不是以顾客利益为重的低值服务，诸如高速视频下载，高清电视等等，而是随之带来的无限可能性。光纤网络之上是交错的无线网络，这使得时常为创新所困的能够尝试一些新路子。察特怒加市的警察已借此大规模拓展了通信和手机数据分析。交通指示灯能够及时地调整交通路线，垃圾的收集效率提高.EPB公司也能避免，或者降低在暴雨天气下输电的电力损失，消费者也可以花得精确，花得明白。极速网络可以改善城市管理，也拓宽了征税基础。这样一来，冒着危险尝试一把又有何防。