Apple gets state deal; Wilson is ready

The General Assembly has approved some tax breaks that are intended to lure Apple Computer to North Carolina. The legendary creator of iPods, iPhones and iMacs plans to build a server facility, presumably the service its iTunes store and other services. Two weeks earlier, Wilson City Council met in closed session to discuss a potential industrial client. Council took no action on the matter.

Coincidence? Maybe. After all, Wilson County has several available industrial sites that could catch the attention of a new industry. These closed-door meetings are not all that rare, and most of them never result in anything.

Still ... Wilson has what a company like Apple wants: a super-high-speed, state-of-the-art fiber optic network that would be ideal for a server farm such as the one Apple wants to build somewhere in North Carolina, or perhaps in another Southeastern state. Apple's server farm is just the sort of high-tech industrial client the city of Wilson had hoped to attract with its gamble on a $28 million fiber-to-the-home network. Apple needs a "big pipe" to send its iTunes songs, television shows and movies to customers. Wilson's 100 MB upload/download speeds provide that big pipe, and it's already in place.

I have no idea whether there is a connection between the state's provision for tax advantages for Apple and Wilson's fiber network, but it would make sense for Apple to look at what Wilson has to offer.