Faster than Google's search.

• Position: CHARLOTTE REGION

Earlier this year, Mountain View, Calif.-based Google announced it was considering installing its high-speed Google Fiber network in Charlotte and seven Triangle cities. Not to be outdone, Shelby-based RST Global Communications announced it already had activated a 3,100-mile underground fiber-optic network that spans the state and can provide broadband Internet service to businesses at up to 100 gigabits per second. The speed limit on residential service: 1 gigabit per second. RST runs fiber-optic cable to cell towers and installs wireless transmitters. Anyone within 11/2 miles can receive a 1 gigabit connection. Wireless routers in offices and homes connect, expanding the network like a web. RST plans to introduce the service before July in Charlotte, followed by Raleigh and Asheville. Later, it plans to add video and television capabilities to the network. The company, founded in 2010 by three Cleveland County natives, has about 200 current customers, including data centers, health-care organizations, schools and universities.

CHARLOTTE--Bank of America will pay $9.5 billion to resolve four lawsuits that allege the bank and subsidiaries Countrywide Financial and Merrill Lynch sold substandard mortgage-backed securities to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac between 2005 and 2007. In a separate case, BofA will pay $783 million in fines and refunds to credit-card customers misled by deceptive marketing of its credit-protection and identity-theft products. The bank also raised its common-stock dividend to 5 cents a share in the second quartet its first increase since slashing the payout to a penny in 2008.

CHARLOTTE--The Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association has agreed to hold its annual basketball tournament here through 2020. The city, Mecklenburg County and the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority will increase the annual financial incentive from...