Rocket Fiber, one of the fastest Internet speeds in the country, launches in Detroit

DETROIT (WJBK) - Last week Rocket Fiber took their lightning fast Internet live in Detroit, and they gave FOX 2 viewers an exclusive look at the future of Internet in southeast Michigan. It's a total game changer.

"So, for an iTunes album, today, on Rocket Fiber, you'll be able to download it in less than a second," says Marc Hudson, co-founder and CEO of Rocket Fiber.

How is it able to work so quickly? Fiber optics.

"Literally a strand of glass that's as thin as a human hair and on either end are lasers that turn on and off millions of times per second to transmit data," Hudson explains.

As a software engineer for quicken loans in 2013, Marc helped Rocket Fiber grow from the ground up. After Dan Gilbert said yes to the project in May 2014 they got to work, building from the ground down.

"So we actually started building through the streets of Detroit last September, September of 2014. All through the winter, we were doing high density underground construction, digging trenches through the streets, drilling through the streets, laying these fiber optic cables that now form our core backbone ring that runs all the way through downtown," Hudson says.

And did we mention the speed yet?

"So the current residential average is 10 Mbps. Our gig plan is 1000 Mbps, and then we just announced our 10 gig plan, so that's a thousand times faster. That's 10,000 Mbps.

Okay, but, why?

"We knew to keep Detroit competitive, we would have to do it here and we'd have to do it ourselves because the incumbent providers weren't going to do it, and that's why Rocket Fiber happened. That's why we were created and that's what we're trying to do, is to make Detroit have thee fastest Internet in the entire country."

We did take a minute to mention the speed, right?

"So you could conceivably download a high definition Blu-Ray movie in four seconds?" FOX 2's Derek Kevra asks Hudson.

"Four seconds to download," he confirms, nodding his head.

Where do you sign up?

"We actually went live just a couple weeks ago. We launched service in The Albert, in Capitol Park, and The Malcomson in Capitol Park. So we have residental customers online today," Hudson says. 

"I work from home, so I'm constantly connected to the Internet. It's the only venue I have to work," says Christopher Wirth, who lives in The Malcomson building.

And he talked about something we don't think we've mentioned yet -- the speed.

"I just ran a speed test last week and posted it on Facebook because it's kind of impressive. With Rocket, on a wireless connection, I was getting 441 Mbps. So theres no comparison whatsoever," he says.

In his apartment is a tiny unit about the size of a nickel, and the line is dental floss thin. You can't even see it.

All we want to know is, when can we get it?

"After we get most of the city online, we want to go out to the suburbs, get other neighborhoods, other cities online," says Hudson.

The 1 GB per second plan will cost $70 a month and the 10 GB per second plan will be $299. To find out more check out their website, www.rocketfiber.com.