Chattanooga Offering Internet 10X Faster Than Google Fiber

[GotNoRice]

I would MUCH rather have a "slower" connection that allowed unlimited data consumption than a "fast" connection like this where you'll probably get a phone call or a big bill if you actually use it.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

I would MUCH rather have a "slower" connection that allowed unlimited data consumption than a "fast" connection like this where you'll probably get a phone call or a big bill if you actually use it.

That goes without saying.

Anything without data caps >> anything with data caps.

Within reason, bandwidth/speed is secondary.

 

[Exavior]

This strikes me as odd. Back 10 years ago we always heard about out Canadian neighbors and their great Internet.

This is actually true for most areas. For all the bitching about speeds in the USA and how we are behind the rest of the world, most countries are no better off than us. Always heard the same thing about England and how everyone has really great speeds, then I started gaming with a lot of people from England and they complained about crappy service, 1.5 - 3 Mpbs speeds. Same for others in various parts of Europe. So what it comes down to is everyone can have slow and expensive internet.

What you get is the one or two places that have good speed being used as a reference for the entire country, while we do the reverse and use the small percent to show everyone has crap service here.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

...while we do the reverse and use the small percent to show everyone has crap service here.

It's not THAT small of a percentage though.

Sub 10mbit DSL is still the norm in large parts of the country, and some places are still on dialup.

 

[Ihaveworms]

I wish they would expand to Knoxville

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

It's not THAT small of a percentage though.

Sub 10mbit DSL is still the norm in large parts of the country, and some places are still on dialup.

This map helps show what it's like out there.

If you live in or around a urban center, you can usually get pretty decent internet (but it may have caps).

If you don't, you are pretty much screwed, with offerings either being sub 3Mbps DSL if you are lucky, and various wireless solutions or dialup if you aren't.

Suggestion: Use the slider on the map to filter it down and see how many areas are still in the lower speed grades.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

This map helps show what it's like out there.

If you live in or around a urban center, you can usually get pretty decent internet (but it may have caps).

If you don't, you are pretty much screwed, with offerings either being sub 3Mbps DSL if you are lucky, and various wireless solutions or dialup if you aren't.

Suggestion: Use the slider on the map to filter it down and see how many areas are still in the lower speed grades.

Side note,

I just filtered by 1 Gbps+, and noticed all of Rhode Island falls into this category, as does a strange seemingly empty area between Albany and Kingston in upstate New York...


Will need to investigate further.

 

[w1retap]

Has nothing to do with capitalism. Have you noticed that in the areas where Google Fiber has been announced, the local cable and phone companies magically have faster Internet at greatly reduced speeds? The reason so many people in the USA have slower and more expensive Internet is because the local/state governments have passed laws that prohibit competition. In my city, we will never get good, inexpensive service because the law states only one cable company and only one phone company. No one else can come in and compete using wires with those two companies, Comcast and Century Link respectively. True capitalism would allow other companies to come in and compete, rather than the current government enforced monopolies.

+1.. it's the same way in my township at my house. I have either Comcast or AT&T for land-based services. 4 miles away at my parent's house, they have 5 different land based options, and have higher speed packages for less money than I'm paying.

 

[BunnyKillBot]

I'm so sick of these types of statements "Few home users will be able to take advantage of that much bandwidth..."

Yeah because we should always install the bare minimum when it comes to infrastructure. God fucking forbid we try and future proof anything!?

What, future proofing is installing cat 6a cable instead of cat 5 but running a 1gbe switch, with the option of adding 10gbe at a later date. This is the equivalent of installing a full blown data network and using it to stream hd episodes of my little pony....

 

[Deadly Ramon]

Chattanooga is a pretty decent place to live these days. Pretty good food, good beer, lots of stuff to do, and pretty quick and easy to get to at least 2 major metros.

Though Chattanooga (renamed Chooga) lasted a long time after "C-day" (July 27, 2008), it finally got overrun by the Crossed exactly one hundred years later in Alan Moore's Crossed +100 comic book series by Avatar Press.

Murfreesboro, a liberal Muslim enclave, is still standing and thriving, at least as of the latest issue (#10).

 

[dali71]

I look at it this way.


Those poor fuckers are stuck in Tennessee. At least now they have something to be happy about

Well, we have won Outside Magazine's "Best Town" both years that we were eligible, so we have quite a bit more than absurdly fast internet to be happy about.

 

[nilepez]

+1.. it's the same way in my township at my house. I have either Comcast or AT&T for land-based services. 4 miles away at my parent's house, they have 5 different land based options, and have higher speed packages for less money than I'm paying.

I assume these laws can be challenged. I'd think it could be overturned in court, so long as it wasn't something where an agreement was just signed and new infrastructure (i.e. FTTH) was just put down, but I'm no lawyer, so maybe these laws can be upheld. I think they made sense at one time, but now I think it's time for more competition. That said, from what I"ve read, everyone seems to like Municipal fiber.

 

[aaronspink]

Let me be the first to point out that a 10G connection between a residential endpoint and the municipal 10G loop doesn't mean anything.

You do realize that the Chattanooga deployment is using TDWM right? Which means they have pretty substantial backhaul and fronthaul bandwidth capabilities. The system that Chattanooga deployed (and became the first commercial use of TDWM in the world!) can right now support up to 40Gbps and is upgradable to at least 100Gbps. The whole TDWM-PON system is designed for high capacity and high bandwidth and support features such as wavelength isolated virtual networks which can allow them to effectively create a private circuit using a separate wavelength on top of the existing public network for customers.

As far as greater backbone bandwidth goes, Chattanooga sits on the trunk lines for at least 3 separate backbones, so global uplink/downlink bandwidth isn't an issue. This is of course largely out of happenstance with the area having lots of major rail lines and rail ROWs being the most preferred way to lay long haul fiber.

 

[Deleted member 184142]

I would not pay $300/mo for 10Gbps, but only because I don't need it and would have to spend lots of money just on HW to see it, I would however be willing to pay 100-150/mo for 500/500 or 1Gbps/1Gbps, which is a fraction of the speed but still half the cost, only if it is unlimited however, I pay $100 as it is now for 60/15 as it's business class (I also think business class should be 60/60) and unlimited data, I would enjoy faster, but the next step up is almost $250 and it's only 100Mbps, which is just not worth it to me.

 

[aaronspink]

I would not pay $300/mo for 10Gbps, but only because I don't need it and would have to spend lots of money just on HW to see it, I would however be willing to pay 100-150/mo for 500/500 or 1Gbps/1Gbps, which is a fraction of the speed but still half the cost, only if it is unlimited however, I pay $100 as it is now for 60/15 as it's business class (I also think business class should be 60/60) and unlimited data, I would enjoy faster, but the next step up is almost $250 and it's only 100Mbps, which is just not worth it to me.

EPBFi has 1G/1G priced at $70 per month. Within a couple of years, I fully expect their 10G/10G to be down to $100. The main cost factor in the current pricing is investment recovery. The 10G ONT is probably a $1K+ item right now and the new OLTs probably cost a small fortune (as one would expect for their first ever deployment). But those prices will come down on the ONTs and the OLT investment will depreciate relatively fast. IIRC, it took EPBfi roughly 4-5 years from initial 1G deployment at $300 per month to get down to the current $70 per month. 10G will likely be similar.

Also probably worth pointing out that EPB deployed the whole thing and started hitting positive cashflow in roughly 2-3 years. Which makes the fact that everywhere else is lagging behind so much just ridiculous. Their customer density is well behind most places in the US at 170k total available market in 600sq miles. Its insane that places like SF or silicon valley are still generally in the dark ages as far as internet connectivity esp considering someplace like SF with 300-400k+ total available market in 49 sq miles.

 

[Deleted member 184142]

EPBFi has 1G/1G priced at $70 per month. Within a couple of years, I fully expect their 10G/10G to be down to $100. The main cost factor in the current pricing is investment recovery. The 10G ONT is probably a $1K+ item right now and the new OLTs probably cost a small fortune (as one would expect for their first ever deployment). But those prices will come down on the ONTs and the OLT investment will depreciate relatively fast. IIRC, it took EPBfi roughly 4-5 years from initial 1G deployment at $300 per month to get down to the current $70 per month. 10G will likely be similar.

Also probably worth pointing out that EPB deployed the whole thing and started hitting positive cashflow in roughly 2-3 years. Which makes the fact that everywhere else is lagging behind so much just ridiculous. Their customer density is well behind most places in the US at 170k total available market in 600sq miles. Its insane that places like SF or silicon valley are still generally in the dark ages as far as internet connectivity esp considering someplace like SF with 300-400k+ total available market in 49 sq miles.

Sadly, I don't have a single fiber option around me, and have to go downtown Houston before you see any and even then the options are shitty, as well as costly.

 

[nilepez]

Also probably worth pointing out that EPB deployed the whole thing and started hitting positive cashflow in roughly 2-3 years. Which makes the fact that everywhere else is lagging behind so much just ridiculous. Their customer density is well behind most places in the US at 170k total available market in 600sq miles. Its insane that places like SF or silicon valley are still generally in the dark ages as far as internet connectivity esp considering someplace like SF with 300-400k+ total available market in 49 sq miles.

I wonder if it's harder/more expensive to deploy in cities. How much has to be torn up to lay the fiber? In places with more grass, I suspect it's easier to dig things up. I'm not convinced that would apply in the Valley (but I don't live there).

 

[XvMMvX]

I'm going to rub it in here and I'm not going to be sorry for it.

This shows that capitalism does not work when you have people that care for profits more then bringing broadband to America it slows down everything without any good cause.
Having to beg for decent internet (without data/bandwidth caps) from companies which have no interest in the consumer brings it to this point where people in Tennessee apparently felt different about it and made sure that internet is something for everyone rather then Comcast and cohorts milk cow.

I hope that the rest of America is paying attention and see what is going on in Chattanooga and see if there is some framework to be copied so they can have their own network rather then being stuck.
If people in Chattanooga can do it so can a lot of other places that are left behind ....

LOL... yeah when an entity can just tax and force revenue and not having to worry about profit they can do whatever the fuck they want.

Because the government does such a great job with the Post Office and such we should turn the internet over to them.

 

[TwistedAegis]

Well, we have won Outside Magazine's "Best Town" both years that we were eligible, so we have quite a bit more than absurdly fast internet to be happy about.

Well Stockton, CA has been given the "All-American City Award" 3 times by the National Civic League...all while simultaneously voted one of America's "Most Miserable Cities" by Forbes (which is true, it's a scary shithole). So you know, awards....

LOL... yeah when an entity can just tax and force revenue and not having to worry about profit they can do whatever the fuck they want.

Because the government does such a great job with the Post Office and such we should turn the internet over to them.

The Post Office is fine, other than the fact that Congressional Republicans voted to require them to front-load, in cash, all of their retirement costs, which no other business or governmental entity does.

So, you know, when you're intentionally hamstrung with billions in liabilities by people who want you to fail to make a point, it makes it hard to be successful.

 

[nilepez]

LOL... yeah when an entity can just tax and force revenue and not having to worry about profit they can do whatever the fuck they want.

Because the government does such a great job with the Post Office and such we should turn the internet over to them.

I can't speak for Chattanooga, but that's now how it works in Lafayette LA. It was funded through bonds and all money has to come from the Video/Internet. Of course, there are no such constraints on public companies. They can take the profits from Atlanta to build faster infrastructure in Lafayette. One thing is certain, Lafayette wouldn't have had Cox' first Docis 3 build out if LUS wasn't there. And I don't know a soul that dislikes their LUS internet

 

[XvMMvX]

Well Stockton, CA has been given the "All-American City Award" 3 times by the National Civic League...all while simultaneously voted one of America's "Most Miserable Cities" by Forbes (which is true, it's a scary shithole). So you know, awards....



The Post Office is fine, other than the fact that Congressional Republicans voted to require them to front-load, in cash, all of their retirement costs, which no other business or governmental entity does.

So, you know, when you're intentionally hamstrung with billions in liabilities by people who want you to fail to make a point, it makes it hard to be successful.

What in the hell kind of fantasy land are you living in? The Post Office loses billions every year and has billions in unfunded liabilities. They also deliver the worst service out of the shipping companies, have you even been to a post office compared to a UPS/FedEx store?

The Post office is terrible and a prime example of what happens when an entity doesn't have to return a profit and can just force their revenue stream on citizens.

 

[TwistedAegis]

The USPS is forced to put $5.5B annually to pre-fund retirement benefits; as of 2012 it had $326B just sitting there to address future liabilities. Even if it did not contribute a penny further from that point, if it grew at 3.5% - 4% annually, it would meet all future obligations in 21 years.

Again, to reiterate, no other entity in the United States, public or private, has this ridiculous pre-funding requirement and it's bleeding the USPS to death.

And it isn't your tax dollars. The US Congress gives the USPS only $100M per year to compensate the agency for revenue loss by providing, at congressional direction, free mailing privileges to blind people and overseas voters. That $100M is less than 1% of the USPS' annual budget.

They had no debt until 2005, when it rose to $10.2B in 2009; again, entirely due to the pre-funding issue which has put a ball and chain around the USPS.

 

[nilepez]

What in the hell kind of fantasy land are you living in? The Post Office loses billions every year and has billions in unfunded liabilities. They also deliver the worst service out of the shipping companies, have you even been to a post office compared to a UPS/FedEx store?

The Post office is terrible and a prime example of what happens when an entity doesn't have to return a profit and can just force their revenue stream on citizens.

The post office has to prepay for retirement benefits, per congresses law passed in 2006. On top of that, Congress, in it's infinite wisdom, has decided they can only put that money in US backed investments (e.g. T Bills). Having money they need in the next 5-10 years in Treasury notes is wise, but the rest could easily go into a bunch of ETFs. Doing so would significantly lower the required funding, without significant risk, even if they only invested in Blue Chip companies (i.e. low risk equities).

This is Congress doing their best to kill the USPS (not that they'll admit it). Can you imagine if Democrats tried to pas a low mandating GE and IBM do the same? Republicans would be screaming about intrusive regulation and/or socialism.

 

[aaronspink]

LOL... yeah when an entity can just tax and force revenue and not having to worry about profit they can do whatever the fuck they want.

Because the government does such a great job with the Post Office and such we should turn the internet over to them.

EPB can't just tax and force revenue. Everything they do has to at least break even. EPB used loans and stored capital to fund both the initial rollout and the latest upgrade came out of cashflow. The whole thing had zero negative impact on electricity rates the EPB charges (in fact it lowered overall costs because it allowed lower grid downtime and made repairs faster and easier).

 

[aaronspink]

I wonder if it's harder/more expensive to deploy in cities. How much has to be torn up to lay the fiber? In places with more grass, I suspect it's easier to dig things up. I'm not convinced that would apply in the Valley (but I don't live there).

Marginally more expensive in cities as you have to run the fiber in the existing conduits instead of stringing on poles but it isn't substantially more expensive.

 

[Ur_Mom]

I'm so sick of these types of statements "Few home users will be able to take advantage of that much bandwidth..."

Few home users could use a server. Few home users could use a home lab. Few home users could use enterprise grade equipment.

Go check out the Networking subforum. For a real treat, check out the Virtual Computing or Data Storage subforums. Few home users could use that stuff. But, many of us do.

10Gb may not be great for the majority. Yet. In 5 years when it's mainstream and everyone has it, they will be ready and already be in it. Someone has to start. These guys did it. I'm very jealous.

 

[Exavior]

It's not THAT small of a percentage though.

Sub 10mbit DSL is still the norm in large parts of the country, and some places are still on dialup.

This map helps show what it's like out there.

If you live in or around a urban center, you can usually get pretty decent internet (but it may have caps).

If you don't, you are pretty much screwed, with offerings either being sub 3Mbps DSL if you are lucky, and various wireless solutions or dialup if you aren't.

Suggestion: Use the slider on the map to filter it down and see how many areas are still in the lower speed grades.

If you look at your map you will see a good section where people actually live is blue in your map there. Also that map isn't exactly the best either. You are not going to see all companies listed on there, and some part have false data. I know that my area isn't fully correct on there, data is over a year old anyway. It also has areas listed as having fiber provided by carriers who don't actually service an area but just have trunk fiber going through the area.

This map also goes based on what people are actually paying for. So if 1 person in an area is paying for 1Gbps then it shows that censes area as having 1 Gbps, doesn't matter if only 1 person can get it and is paying for it. The fact that 1 person has it means that entire area has it. By the same logic, if nobody wants to pay for 1 Gbps, even if you can offer it that map won't show it as you haven't sold. So it is a good base to look at, but isn't going to give you a perfect representation of the area possible services in various areas.

At the same time, include wireless in your example there and you do get much better coverage. Keep in mind that isn't wireless as in cell phone (or not only cell phone I should say as it probably does include that also). But wireless as in WISP ie fixed wireless.

Which may have it faults as a service to a degree, but it is still an option and in really remote areas is your only choice as trying to run anything else to certain areas just isn't going to be cost effective.

 

[Exavior]

Few home users could use a server. Few home users could use a home lab. Few home users could use enterprise grade equipment.

Go check out the Networking subforum. For a real treat, check out the Virtual Computing or Data Storage subforums. Few home users could use that stuff. But, many of us do.

10Gb may not be great for the majority. Yet. In 5 years when it's mainstream and everyone has it, they will be ready and already be in it. Someone has to start. These guys did it. I'm very jealous.

Not only that but there are other back end benefits of going 10Gbps that could help the average home.

To a degree this is more of just a look at me case. However my guess is that they are going from GPON to XG-PON. Standard GPON uses ONTs that can get up to 1Gbps with the PON itself being feed by 2.5Gbps downstream and 1.25Gbps upstream. You can split this up to 128 times. Most don't go exactly there are but split it about 24 - 32 times. So everyone might be set at 1Gbps, might even see that on a speed test if lucky, but you all are sharing that 2.5Gbps. By moving to this XG-PON you can now split 512 times. This is all with using the existing ONTs as it still puts out the same light as the GPON standard. So a company could replace 1 card in the office and now be able to use that 1 feeder fiber to hit more homes. This means less fiber being needed to go out to a neighborhood. It also gives them the extra bonus of being able to spit off separate 10Gbps links. So if 1 business wants / needs 10Gbps they can set up 1 special ONT out in the field and instead of that using the same wavelength as the other ONTs it will have its own special wavelength so that it has a full 10Gbps going to that location, and you can setup multiple of these special wavelengths of different customers. Or you could even feed other equipment (such as a VDSL dslam) off of that and get yourself better speeds further out to other areas.

So yes, the end user might not have much of a need for this yet, however once the network is in place for GPON, going to XG-PON allows for better services and a better backbone going out to existing customers. However that isn't a cheap thing to switch over to. Mostly because the equipment is just starting to hit the market. I saw some demos of it 2 years ago and the equipment I saw demoed on stage is just now hitting the market from that vender.

 

[Semantics]

Please tell me where you can get 1.5Gb Internet for $30 per month...

For $30 a month, you are generally lucky to get 25mb/s in most places.

You'll get that for a year then you have to threaten to leave them to keep your "introductory pricing"

 

[aaronspink]

Not only that but there are other back end benefits of going 10Gbps that could help the average home.

To a degree this is more of just a look at me case. However my guess is that they are going from GPON to XG-PON.

EPBfi actually went all the way to TWDM-PON. That means they can if they really wanted do some amazing things. First of all the TWDM-PON equipment is already able to do 40Gbps plus they can run multiple virtual PONs in separate wavelengths. TWDM-PON is so advanced that EPBfi is the first commercial deployment of the technology.

Or you could even feed other equipment (such as a VDSL dslam) off of that and get yourself better speeds further out to other areas.

EPBfi is full fiber everywhere. Anywhere in their footprint that get electrical power has fiber, which is the whole footprint (well unless you are off in the back woods without any electricity).

So yes, the end user might not have much of a need for this yet, however once the network is in place for GPON, going to XG-PON allows for better services and a better backbone going out to existing customers. However that isn't a cheap thing to switch over to. Mostly because the equipment is just starting to hit the market. I saw some demos of it 2 years ago and the equipment I saw demoed on stage is just now hitting the market from that vender.

I'm sure they got somewhat of a deal on the equipment, this being the first every actual deployment and basically a demonstration of what the technology is capable of.

 

[Deadly Ramon]

The post office has to prepay for retirement benefits, per congresses [sic] law passed in 2006. On top of that, Congress, in it's [sic] infinite wisdom, has decided they can only put that money in US backed investments (e.g. T Bills). Having money they need in the next 5-10 years in Treasury notes is wise, but the rest could easily go into a bunch of ETFs. Doing so would significantly lower the required funding, without significant risk, even if they only invested in Blue Chip companies (i.e. low risk equities).

This is Congress doing their best to kill the USPS (not that they'll admit it). Can you imagine if Democrats tried to pas a low mandating GE and IBM do the same? Republicans would be screaming about intrusive regulation and/or socialism.

Do massa guv'mint give $100 million of taxpayer funds each year to each company?

 

[aaronspink]

Do massa guv'mint give $100 million of taxpayer funds each year to each company?

Each company? nope, but they gives billions upon billions to some, even some that can't deliver the product and haven't been able to stay on plan for decades (I'm looking at you F-35!).

The money that the USG gives to the USPS is payment for services.

 

[FLECOM]

$300 a month, oh BOY! Instead of waiting 10 seconds for my download to complete for only $30/month, I can spend $300 a month and have it done in ~1.5 seconds! OH BOY OH BOY OH BOY!

think you may have stumbled across this forum by accident...

 

[Exavior]

EPBfi actually went all the way to TWDM-PON. That means they can if they really wanted do some amazing things. First of all the TWDM-PON equipment is already able to do 40Gbps plus they can run multiple virtual PONs in separate wavelengths. TWDM-PON is so advanced that EPBfi is the first commercial deployment of the technology.

EPBfi is full fiber everywhere. Anywhere in their footprint that get electrical power has fiber, which is the whole footprint (well unless you are off in the back woods without any electricity).

I'm sure they got somewhat of a deal on the equipment, this being the first every actual deployment and basically a demonstration of what the technology is capable of.

Thanks for the info. I wasn't able to see in the article what exactly they were doing. I might have had my names missed up. Looks like that is what I was thinking about TWDM-PON or NG-PON. XG-PON is 10Gbps PON. Yes it is very new technology. I know some people have been playing around with test cards for the platform that we use. The cards will support NG-PON (TWDM-PON), XG-PON, GPON, EPON 10Gbps EPON. But won't be officially released till Q1 2016 I think. Pretty sure my sales rep will be trying to push them on me hard once they hit the market. My $800K in orders a year probably isn't enough for him, I barely give him enough commission to pay for his car insurance.

As for the VDSL part, I had meant that more for everyone out there in general. Not just this case here. Fiber to the home is expensive to deploy. So you have to fill in the gaps of fiber with higher speed xDSL while you are deploying fiber. So that gives you ways to take care of that in the mean while. Run your fiber out a certain distance, drop a temp DSLAM at the very end to get better speeds out there while you build out fiber to the homes between your equipment and the customers. once you get that done, run more fiber out, drop another DSLAM at the end and build out fiber to the homes there.. keep moving the DSLAMs out more and more as you keep building fiber. Which I know for the bigger guys that doesn't happen like that. But for the smaller guys who are actually working to improve their networks that is what they do. Just keep shorting that loop as much as you can till you get fiber everywhere.

 

[aaronspink]

Thanks for the info. I wasn't able to see in the article what exactly they were doing. I might have had my names missed up. Looks like that is what I was thinking about TWDM-PON or NG-PON. XG-PON is 10Gbps PON. Yes it is very new technology. I know some people have been playing around with test cards for the platform that we use. The cards will support NG-PON (TWDM-PON), XG-PON, GPON, EPON 10Gbps EPON. But won't be officially released till Q1 2016 I think. Pretty sure my sales rep will be trying to push them on me hard once they hit the market. My $800K in orders a year probably isn't enough for him, I barely give him enough commission to pay for his car insurance.

Well it is a bit funny. EPBfi announced their network 5 days before Alcatel-Lucent actually announced the products.

As for the VDSL part, I had meant that more for everyone out there in general. Not just this case here. Fiber to the home is expensive to deploy. So you have to fill in the gaps of fiber with higher speed xDSL while you are deploying fiber. So that gives you ways to take care of that in the mean while. Run your fiber out a certain distance, drop a temp DSLAM at the very end to get better speeds out there while you build out fiber to the homes between your equipment and the customers. once you get that done, run more fiber out, drop another DSLAM at the end and build out fiber to the homes there.. keep moving the DSLAMs out more and more as you keep building fiber. Which I know for the bigger guys that doesn't happen like that. But for the smaller guys who are actually working to improve their networks that is what they do. Just keep shorting that loop as much as you can till you get fiber everywhere.

I just wish I could get VDSL here. In SF you are pretty much stuck with comcast or ADSL2. Its absolutely insane.

 

[JMccovery]

Has nothing to do with capitalism. Have you noticed that in the areas where Google Fiber has been announced, the local cable and phone companies magically have faster Internet at greatly reduced speeds? The reason so many people in the USA have slower and more expensive Internet is because the local/state governments have passed laws that prohibit competition. In my city, we will never get good, inexpensive service because the law states only one cable company and only one phone company. No one else can come in and compete using wires with those two companies, Comcast and Century Link respectively. True capitalism would allow other companies to come in and compete, rather than the current government enforced monopolies.

In a lot of municipalities, those 'government enforced monopolies' came to exist due to cable providers refusing to wire up an entire city without being given a 'franchise' where they can lock out competitors. Remember, these deals were mainly made when there were very few choices to cable TV service.

Comcast has a seriously long history of refusing to service low-income areas of cities without franchise agreements.

 

[Exavior]

Well it is a bit funny. EPBfi announced their network 5 days before Alcatel-Lucent actually announced the products.



I just wish I could get VDSL here. In SF you are pretty much stuck with comcast or ADSL2. Its absolutely insane.

Yeah, that is how it happens at times. Not sure of what time line you are referring to as I don't keep up with Alcatel. I am trying to get rid of all their stuff off my network as fast as I can for a different vender. I know that Calix and Adtran have been talking about this for at least a few years. Saw this demoed at a Calix user group 2 years ago. Calix made an announcement about a month or two ago about working with some city to create the first 10G city using their equipment. Don't remember the city, I saw the email from my Calix rep and just deleted it.

Given that the chipset makers are no longer making ADSL2+ chips everyone has had to drop making ADSL2+ cards and DSLAMs. So pretty soon some of these areas will have no choice but to start putting in VDSL DSLAMs, doesn't mean that they will sell VDSL, but at the very least their networks will be forced to support it.

In a lot of municipalities, those 'government enforced monopolies' came to exist due to cable providers refusing to wire up an entire city without being given a 'franchise' where they can lock out competitors. Remember, these deals were mainly made when there were very few choices to cable TV service.

Comcast has a seriously long history of refusing to service low-income areas of cities without franchise agreements.

you are aware that others besides the cable company offer phone and internet services correct?

 

[ssnyder28]

I'm in Nashville and comcast it pretty much the only game in town (if you want decent speeds.) I currently get 75/15 for $50 a month which I'm pretty happy with. They also have a 2gb connection option now too which is also $300 a month so this Chattanooga company is offering a pretty damn good deal. Once google fiber finishes up here I'll be switching over to them, $70 for 1gb is too good to pass up.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

you are aware that others besides the cable company offer phone and internet services correct?

Some places I guess.

But for most it's either Internet from a cable provider or internet from a phone company. No other options exist.

I'm one of the lucky ones. I have more than one choice.

I could choose Comcast (Cable company) or Verizon (Cable AND phone company)

Even though I am one of the lucky ones, my dream is to have community internet and never have to deal with the cable/phone companies ever again.

Community internet really trumps all.