So my neighborhood is finally getting GB internet ...

dvsman

dvsman

2[H]4U
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Dec 2, 2009
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We're finally getting some competition for Xfinity in my neighborhood (it's RCN, another cable provider) and they're offering up to 1Gb/s service!

My question to everyone though is - what are you guys actually using your GB internet for? As an occasional MMO/steam user - I don't host any servers or websites - I can't see much use for speed past maybe 100Mb/s for just downloading new games. As a movie fan, I can understand streaming video (or multiple streams at the same time) but even streaming 4K video doesn't need that much bandwidth right?

Anyhoo, your thoughts appreciated as always ...
 
Oh yeah - I'm not sure what the data cap policy for RCN is yet (if any). I know Comcast/Xfinity has the same cap for all speed tiers - which makes no sense to me ...
 
1Gb/s service for home users rarely gets saturated. The "need" cases are few and far between, however, if you regularly download very large file (i.e. games or movies) then it allows you get them faster. My business has 25 users on a 250Mbps connection and we rarely saturate it, but when we do, we are glad that we have that extra overhead. For example, our average usage during the day is around 3Mbps, but we commonly have peaks into the 200Mbps+ range. Without that extra overhead space, our connection would throttle down for individual users.

For the home case, if you're streaming 4k content about 25Mbps is needed per stream. If you have kids streaming and your spouse is streaming something, then you can very quickly get up to 150Mbps. Having that extra overhead can keep your connection from bogging down. For example, let's say that you're working from home on a 100Mbps connection, everyone else in the house is streaming and you're trying to download a 1GB file for work. Instead of taking 1:25 to download the files, it takes over 5 minutes. While as a one off that doesn't have a large impact, if you're doing it often it does. Let's say you do this 25 times per week. In one year you can easily have over 100 hours of lost productivity.

Back to your usage case, it is very likely that you don't have a need to have a connection over 100Mbps unless you have multiple users streaming at the same time. MMOs don't take very much bandwidth but latency is very important.

Most people that I know whom have a 1Gbps connection don't come close to ever saturating the connection unless they are pulling a single large file. Even most businesses don't need that type of bandwidth. When you layer on the data caps that most providers put onto residential connections, all it does is make you download before thinking and run a much higher chance of hitting your data cap.
 
Thanks Durp! There's only 2 of us in my current residence - unless the cat secretly is using the computer when we're not at home.

I was just thinking that the price difference isn't huge but if 155Mbs is all we need, spending the extra $20-30 to get 1Gbs is still throwing money out the window if I don't ever actually use it.
 
I'd look more at the upload speed that comes with the package. Depending on what you do, if there is a corresponding increase in the upload, it may be worth going to the higher speed tier, even if you won't utilize the download. Many high download speed packages have laughably low upload speeds by comparison.
 
I hope you have no monthly caps. I'd rather have <10Mbps DSL with no monthly cap than 1Gbps internet with a monthly cap. Faster speeds are handy, but even if stuff takes longer to download, it will always finish eventually...
 
Yeah that's what I'm worried about too, Got ... the promo info seems too good to be true. About the only upside is that they are competing in the same market as Comcast / Xfinity (and to a lesser degree, Fios even though my particular building doesn't have it), so they have to sweeten the deal to steal customers, I would imagine.

Given the crappy customer service and service interruptions I've had with Comcast in the past - all met with basically "Tough shit / pound sand" when they were the exclusive ISP (under the previous building management), I'm all for someone / anyone new.
 
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It's all about getting on and off the wire as fast as possible. Regardless of application and average usage.
 
I use mine for normal everyday use. The added bonus is how fast Steam games download. Otherwise it seems like any other internet service.
 
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