The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that there is Gigabit broadband access in parts of Minneapolis. It’s great news and interesting for a couple of reasons. First – it’s an opportunity for some homes to find a way to use Gig access and make their neighbors jealous. That might help build a demand for further expansion…

You can’t buy blazingly fast, 1 billion-bit-per-second Internet service just anywhere in Minneapolis, but 4,000 homeowners soon will be in the right place for it.

USI Wireless, a unit of U.S. Internet Corp. of Minnetonka, will expand its honeycomb of fiber-optic cables that support the Minneapolis Wi-Fi network, which the company operates under a contract with the city

Second – it’s a classic example of how networks get built and upgraded. You build to demand and upgrade as demand grows…

As Internet customers have placed more demand on the Wi-Fi network by downloading more video, USI Wireless has over the last three years installed more fiber to speed the delivery of data to antennas around the city. Those antennas then allow download speeds of 1 million to 6 million bits per second, or megabits.

But residents who live near the buried fiber can buy much-faster wired Internet service from USI Wireless, up to 1 billion bits per second, or 1 gigabit.

The price is good for homes in the service area…

The 4,000 homes that will be passed by the new USI Wireless fiber are in the southern part of the city, and include those on Hennepin Avenue (2600 through 2700 blocks), Lyndale Avenue (2400 through 2700 blocks) and James Avenue (1700 through 2800 blocks.) A complete list of affected streets is available at http://fiber.usin ternet.com/coverage-areas.

Homes adjacent to the fiber-optic cable can buy 1-gigabit wired Internet access for $99 a month, 100-megabit for $50 a month or 25-megabit for $25 a month, said Joe Caldwell, CEO of Minnetonka-based USI Wireless.

Neither Comcast nor CenturyLink, the leading providers of Internet access, offers a 1-gigabit residential Internet service in the Twin Cities. Comcast’s 25-megabit service costs more than twice as much as the USI Wireless service. However, Comcast and CenturyLink offer home Internet service throughout most of the Twin Cities, while USI Wireless serves only Minneapolis residential customers.

There have been some bumps along the way but it’s a nice example of a public-private partnerships that seems to be working…

USI Wireless, a unit of U.S. Internet Corp. of Minnetonka, will expand its honeycomb of fiber-optic cables that support the Minneapolis Wi-Fi network, which the company operates under a contract with the city.