What's next for the future of home Internet in Southwest Virginia?

We've come a long way since dial-up Internet, but what's the next way we're going to log in in this every connected world?

As of this month, residential Internet in Southwest Virginia has moved into the future with high-speed gigabit Internet service. Comcast and Cox have offered this type of service to businesses in the area for the last decade. But now it's coming to the home and a new construction project in downtown Roanoke is the first to get the service.

Gramercy Row is a new complex Williamson Road from the Norfolk Southern building. Inside the building, Monday crews were buzzing along as tours to potential leasees were being given. Paint crews were applying final coats and other crews were just as busy working on ductwork and other final projects. Listen in with a keen ear as you pass by and you'll hear the sounds of progress.

"It's one thing to take an existing building and renovate it into apartments, it' quite another to take on a brand new construction in a town that a lot of people consider old and sleepy," Gramercy Row Leasing Director Greg Danahy said.

Tenants have already begun moving into the building and the project is in punch list mode -- construction speak for finishing touches. But among all those to-do items being done, it's what you can't see or hear that's truly progressive.

Cox is in the process of rolling out its new Gigablast home Internet to Southwest Virginia, and Gramercy Row is the first to get the service.

"This is a huge evolution in terms of residential Internet services," Cox Roanoke Market Vice President Jeff Merritt said. "It's a huge deal this is the first time anybody in Roanoke will be able to have at their residence 1 gig services, so we're really excited about it. As a matter of fact we're celebrating our 40th year here, and celebrating 40 years and coming out with this kind of technology is kind of remarkable."

The fiber-optic network is made up of glass that carries pulses of light mean much faster home Internet than what most users currently have access to. In the Gramercy Row project, fiber is run directly into the units giving residents who choose to pay the upgrade for the service direct access.

"The property owner said 'Hey, we want to build something that's not just good for today, but good for the future'," Merritt said. "So it's not just state of the art, but it's what are we going to be able to offer into the future."

Lit fiber at Gramercy Row puts Southwest Virginia ahead of some other markets. Merritt said the Roanoke rollout falls in the middle of the timeline of the national rollout project.

Gramercy Row wanted to be a part of the project because it said future residents are not only asking about kitchen fixtures and square footage, they're also asking about connections.

"Connectivity is always at the top of the question list," Danahy said. "People want to know what's in the package, how fast the speed is, what comes with it and things like that. We're really excited to be able to provide that top level service for them."

In terms of connection speeds, Virginia does pretty well when compared to the rest of the United States according to a 2014 'State of the Internet Report' by Akamai. It ranked the Commonwealth in the top 10 in the country for fastest Internet speeds.

Merritt said Cox plans to partner with more apartment complexes and new builds in the immediate future, and regular residential customers should expect to get access to the service in the next year.