對速度的渴求 極速網絡連接對城市的饋贈

NOTHING drives an elected official to indignity faster than the promise of something for nothing. When Google announced that it would build a fibre-optic broadband network capable of delivering one gigabit-per-second internet-roughly 150 times the average American internet speed-to residential users in an American city, mayors lined up to debase themselves. Duluth's jumped into a frozen lake, Sarasota's into a shark tank. The mayor of Topeka changed his city's name (for a day) to Google. Ultimately Google decided on Kansas City, and next month it will start providing its blazing-speed internet for $70 a month.

不勞而獲的美事最能使官員們卑躬屈膝了。谷歌公司欲在美國的一座城市部署1Gb光纖寬帶網絡以供居民使用，消息一出，市長們便競相申請，屈身事人，要知道美國的平均網速還不到它的1／150.德盧斯市使盡渾身解數，爭取名額，薩拉索塔更是亮出了殺手鐗。託皮卡市市長將市名改爲"谷歌市"（僅一天時間）。最終堪薩斯城中選，下個月該市市民便可以享用月租70美元的極速網絡服務了。

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.

但是這項服務並不對所有的市民開放。相反，谷歌將堪薩斯城劃分成204個區（谷歌堅持使用彆扭的"網區"稱謂），並且誠邀需要1GB網絡服務的用戶提前登記，只有關注度最高的46個地區中感興趣的用戶才能獲得該項服務。目前，美國只有一座城市爲每一位居民提供1Gb的寬帶連接，它既不是高新技術城舊金山，也不是大學城波士頓，而是位於阿巴拉契亞山腳的察特怒加市（田納西州第四大城市）。

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營電力公司，大約一年前，公司開始拓展經營範圍，着力發展電信服務，不久便將實現全市電網的現代化提上了議事日程。08年伊始，依靠1.115億美元的聯邦政府刺激基金和1.69億美元的債券資金,EPB公司鋪設的光纖電纜總長度達到6000多英里。去年春天，這套網絡才完全投入使用；它覆蓋了EPB公司所有的服務區域，包括城市，郊區和鄉村近17萬所商、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.

儘管從理論上講，住在阿巴拉契亞山下家庭拖車停車場的居民可以享用如同帕洛阿爾託市般的高速網絡，但相對來說，在察特怒加市，鮮有市民辦理1Gb網絡服務。據EPB公司估計，只有9名市民和兩家企業交付了每月高達350美元的網絡使用費用。大多數人都還在使用30兆每秒的網絡，可是比起6.7兆每秒的美國網絡平均值，已經很快了。

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總裁哈羅德•迪普斯特仍認爲今年的視頻和網絡服務有利可圖。迪普斯特部署光纖網絡（這也是EPB公司能夠獲得政府刺激資金的原因）的初衷並不是供居民使用；相反，這個網絡是美國現在範圍最廣的市政智能電網的核心組成部分。40多年前的工業小城察特怒加市，曾經是美國空氣質量最差的城市，如今卻搖身一變，成爲科技企業家擇善而居的理想之地——所謂的"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.

這表明市政高速網絡真正的收益並不是以顧客利益爲重的低值服務，諸如高速視頻下載，高清電視等等，而是隨之帶來的無限可能性。光纖網絡之上是交錯的無線網絡，這使得時常爲創新所困的政府能夠嘗試一些新路子。察特怒加市的警察已藉此大規模拓展了通信和手機數據分析。交通指示燈能夠及時地調整交通路線，垃圾的收集效率提高公司也能避免，或者降低在暴雨天氣下輸電的電力損失，消費者也可以花得精確，花得明白。極速網絡可以改善城市管理，也拓寬了徵稅基礎。這樣一來，冒着危險嘗試一把又有何防。