Newer, faster internet might be coming to Memphis if one University student has his way—but he needs help to bring it home.
University of Memphis student “Big” Shawn Mufti has been pushing his Change.org petition to bring Google Fiber to Memphis. Running at up to 1000 megabits per second, Google Fiber claims to be “100 times faster than today’s average broadband speeds.”
Mufti explained how Memphis just barely missed getting gigabit-speed internet.
“Back in 2010 Google held a national competition in which Memphis came pretty close to winning,” Mufti said. “But in the end they built a super fast, fiber-optic network for Kansas City and as a result the people of Kansas City have gigabit internet now.”
Google Fiber would be a shock to the systems of Comcast and AT&T, Memphis’ two major internet service providers, both of whom the economics major counts out.
“It’s essentially an oligopolistic market here,” Mufti said. “Comcast is ridiculously expensive, so is AT&T, and the consumer doesn’t have many choices.”
Beyond the entertainment aspect of Google Fiber’s whopping two terabytes of DVR storage and tablet-to-tv app content control, Mufti stressed the uncompromised business advantage of living in a city that runs at 5 megabits per second, enough to stream entire high-definition movies, instantly. Cities like Nashville, who were given Google Fiber back in February.
“Business is going to shift three hours to the east as a result,” Mufti said. “If internet is cheaper in Nashville, then people are going to want to open businesses in Nashville.”
Mufti explained his frustration with the news that Google had chosen Nashville due to their interest in studying “low-income areas.”
“Nationally, Memphis has the highest poverty rate of a city our size,” Mufti said. “Many, many, many people don’t even have access to the internet.”
Despite the city’s problems, Mufti’s hopes to better the quality of life in Memphis—starting with the internet.
“I see so much talent in Memphis,” Mufti said. “Steve Jobs came to receive his life-saving kidney transplant at Methodist University hospital, just 12 miles down the road.” Memphis student Mufti further realizes the city’s potential.
“From a college student’s perspective, I hate when people say they want to get out of this city,” Mufti said. “We should be asking what we can do to make the city better.”
Students interested in bringing Google Fiber to Memphis can sign Mufti’s petition at www.change.org/p/bring-google-fiber-to-memphis-tn.
“No one should have to leave memphis to get their voice heard,” Mufti said. “They should do it right here in our home town.”
