Phoenix to become a "Smart Gigabit Community"

Cox Communications Partnering with US Ignite to Make the City of Phoenix the 16th City in the "Smart Gigabit Communities" Project

PHOENIX, April 19, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Today during his State of the City address, Mayor Greg Stanton announced that Phoenix would be the newest "Smart Gigabit Community." 

Through a three-year private sector grant sponsored by Cox Communications, Phoenix joins 15 other communities nationwide participating in the "Smart Gigabit Communities" project. Initiated in 2015 by US Ignite in partnership with the National Science Foundation, these communities are building a living lab of testbeds for smart gigabit applications.

"Smart Gigabit Communities" represent coalitions of network operators, community anchor institutions like hospitals and universities, municipalities, and non-profit organizations. Together, these organizations are focused on developing smart gigabit applications that can address local community needs, such as education, workforce development, public safety and community health.

As a member of the "Smart Gigabit Communities," Phoenix will receive resources that will enable the development of multiple smart gigabit applications. Consistent with the innovation Cox already enables in its local communities, these apps are expected to deliver technology advancements and community benefits to the Phoenix Metropolitan area. In addition, Phoenix will have access to applications developed by the 15 initial project communities and 55 research universities also on the network.

US Ignite has organized local communities and assisted in building over 100 next-generation application profiles over the past three years. Each participating community receives access to a low-latency and ultra-fast network with local cloud computing and storage capabilities that will support highly interactive and visually immersive experiences not possible on today's commercial Internet.

"Phoenix is a center for innovation, but becoming a "Smart Gigabit Community" will help inspire our best and brightest entrepreneurs to take our economy in exciting new directions," said Mayor Greg Stanton.  "This effort will lead to increased collaboration in our surging tech-innovation ecosystem, streamline city government and enhance the lives of people who live, work and play in our community."

"Cox Communications remains committed to deploying the latest gigabit infrastructure throughout our service areas, driving future innovations in education, healthcare and economic development that will benefit our communities," said John Wolfe, Senior Vice President and Region Manager for Cox Communications' Southwest Region. "We are proud to continue our leadership in gigabit infrastructure and excited to partner with the City of Phoenix and US Ignite to leverage our infrastructure to drive innovation."

Cox began rolling out residential gigabit internet speeds in Phoenix in 2014.  Cox Business has been delivering multi-gig speeds in Phoenix for more than 10 years.

About US Ignite
US Ignite is a non-profit organization set up with inspiration from the National Science Foundation and White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, both of which strongly believe that it is a 21st century competitive necessity for the US to take advantage of next-generation technologies. It operates with a team supported by corporate, foundation, and community partners. Its mission is to foster the creation of 60 next-generation Internet applications – across 200 communities – that provide transformative public benefit in six sectors of the economy: healthcare, education, public safety, energy, transportation, and advanced manufacturing. 

About Cox Communications
Cox Communications is the third largest cable provider and a multi-service broadband communications company in the country, serving nearly 3 million residential and business product subscribers in Arizona (a product subscriber represents an individual service purchased by a customer). In metro Phoenix, Cox serves approximately 2.5 million product subscribers. In Southern Arizona, Cox serves approximately 400,000 product subscribers. Cox's 24,000-mile hybrid fiber coaxial cable network throughout Phoenix and Southern Arizona provides homes and businesses with digital television, high speed Internet, home networking, high-definition television and digital telephone service over its own nationwide IP network. Cox is the third largest private for-profit employer in Arizona.  During the past ten years, Cox has topped numerous J.D. Power and Associates' studies of customer satisfaction, most recently receiving top honors for residential telephone & high speed Internet, and business data services and has received PC Magazine's "people's choice" award for the sixth time. Additionally, Cox High Speed Internet has been ranked #1 for the past eight years on the "Ranking Arizona-Best of Arizona Business" list. Cox Media is responsible for the sale of cable advertising throughout Arizona. Cox Communications is a wholly owned subsidiary of Cox Enterprises Inc and serves approximately 6 million customers nationwide. Additional information about Cox in Arizona is available at www.cox.com/arizona.

SOURCE Cox Communications

For further information: Cox Communications Corporate Public Affairs, Amy Quinn, 404-269-5728, Amy.Quinn@cox.com, Cox Communications Arizona, Andrea Katsenes, 623-328-3272, Andrea.Katsenes@Cox.com