Ting Internet, which says it provides “crazy fast fiber internet,” is planning to offer gigabit-speed Internet in Holly Springs, thus joining a growing list of providers in an increasingly competitive Triangle market.

Ting already has begun an advertising campaign, and it’s surveying Holly Springs neighborhoods to assess demand.

AT&T, Frontier and CenturyLink already offer fiber in a growing number of Triangle neighborhoods. Google Fiber is constructing a network now and plans to install “thousands of miles” of fiber to support ultra-fast speeds.

A $9 pre-ordering fee is part of Ting’s initial offering.

Ting is a subsidiary of Canadian telecommunications firm Tucows (Nasdaq: TCX), which already provides fiber service in Charlottesville, Va. and Westminster, Md.

Gigabit Internet access cost $89 per month for residential customers and $139 a month for businesses.

“Why does pre-ordering Ting Internet cost $9?,” Ting asks in a blog post.

The company then explains:

“$9 isn’t a lot of money by most accounts. Still, if someone is asking you to fork over $9, you may, quite reasonably, have a couple questions as to why and what you’re getting in return. Let’s break it down.

“We’re looking at pre-orders as “votes” for a particular neighborhood or part of town. Building crazy fast fiber Internet networks isn’t cheap and it isn’t easy. Obviously, an individual contributing $9 isn’t going to have any real financial impact on the build. That is to say, it’s not so much about the money as it is about getting skin in the game, so to speak.

“Building the infrastructure needed to get a neighborhood connected then connecting whole streets and individual houses with fiber to the home doesn’t happen overnight. There’s a lot of work and initial investment involved. There are certain thresholds of interest that need to be met before the effort makes sense.

“While our plan is to cover as much of a town as we can, we can’t build in every neighborhood at once. It just makes sense that the places where we see the most interest are the places we’ll look first. If half the households in a neighborhood are dying for crazy fast fiber Internet, you can bet we’re going to make a point to get there sooner rather than later.”

A map published by Ting shows what neighborhoods are showing the most interest so far.

Service could be available this summer.