
Ask HN: When will gigabit broadband go mainstream? - thecybernerd
In the United States there are a lot of fiber to the home providers that offer gigabit speeds and cable companies are starting to offer gigabit speeds over their hybrid fiber coaxial networks. With these deployments and the incoming fixed wireless&#x2F;5G era will 2018 be the year of gigabit in the United States?
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jgruman
Here in Vancouver, Canada, the main telco (Telus) started a fibre to the home
build out throughout a number of cities and suburbs. They are offering 150mbps
symmetrical fibre for $47/mo (less for the first 3 months), and greater
savings if you bundle with TV (which includes 4K). The main cable company
(Shaw) had to up their offering, and now have a 150mbps down/15mbps up for
around the same price. Both carriers require multi year contracts. In some
areas of the city that have lots of new high density development, there are
some smaller players that are offering faster fibre to the suite options.
Novus offers gig up and 100mbps down for $96. They also have other lower cost
plans, as well as monthly add on fees for symmetrical transfer and unlimited
data. Another player, Urban Fibre, offers symmetrical gigabit for $79/mo (when
they first launched it was $49/mo).

I wonder about how strong the consumer demand for gigabit internet actually
is. If you're reading this, you probably have it or want it if you don't, but
if you're the average person looking for a place to live (rent or own), how
much will available internet speed be a factor (compared to location, cost,
and other considerations like schools, fire stations, nightlife, commuting
distances, access to public transit, and so on)? A family of 4 can all stream
different HD content on Netflix with a 25mbps connection. Not many homes would
have multiple 4K/UHD displays, so would likely be ok with 50-60mbps. What else
are people needing all this bandwidth right now?

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thatwebdude
God, I hope so. Google Fiber is feet from my home, but refuses to lay cable.
Those who got it seem to like it, but it looks like it's just too expensive
for them to continue at this point. And that's in the city they started with!

ISPs are holding out though, when Google came into town the current monopoly
"magically" came up with 3X speeds. (300mb/s). Seemingly out of nowhere.

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rimjeilly
Im no expert - but it seems the rollout for such speeds always starts in major
cities. Then rolls from there... at least from the big providers. Demand for
such speeds (outside of techies etc) is probably not as wide as you might
think. Theres a ton of people who barely get dsl speeds that wouldnt even know
any better.

Lots of factors, but $ is probably the largest

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thomastjeffery
Fortunately, that isn't entirely true in this case.

In rural western Utah (and eastern Nevada) we get fiber-to-house from a
relatively small broadband company. It's pricey, and they are literally the
only available service (apart from satellite), but they are doing great work.
A few years ago, I thought the best this <50 house town could ever hope for
was DSL. I was happily proved wrong.

My hope is that there are more businesses willing to do the same thing across
the US.

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dylz
Doesn't Utah have municipal fibre (UTOPIA?)

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thomastjeffery
Apparently in some areas. Mostly northern Utah by the look of it.

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cdvonstinkpot
Not soon enough. Where I live the best you can get is 300/300 fiber, only in
select parts of town, & for prices that (to me) aren't affordable. For now I
put up with 3/1, since it's included with rent. Until I can afford to move &
maybe do better then.

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twobyfour
Yup. The monopolies or duopolies in most places here are either 3/1, 5/1, or
20/1 for reasonably affordable plans. 50/50 if Verizon has bothered to run
FIOS to your block (which covers roughly 10% of the housing stock). Speeds max
out around 200/200 for residential class internet last I checked. And that's
if you're willing to pay through the nose.

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jetti
I feel like it is going to be small competitors that bring about the gigabit
broadband to the masses. I'm moving this week and the new house is eligible
for gigabit (I signed up and am excited) but the company is small and only
covers one town (suburb of Chicago).

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LarryMade2
Once someone figures out how to roll it out cheaply - you can bet your bottom
dollar all the other Internet providers will start rolling up offering a
competitive services.

As long as they can ride an old cash cow un-challenged theres not much
incentive to spend money to innovate their already dominated markets.

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topranks
I honestly don't think there is consumer demand TBH. The biggest driver of
consumer demand for broadband speed is streaming video. Even 4k streams are
only about 20-30Mbit/sec. So 200Mb would do numerous of these simultaneously,
I don't see where the demand for 1G will come from.

Also I'm not sure if GPON deployments can really be considered as "gigabit"
given the shared medium, 5G fixed wireless even less so. Gigabit DOCSIS does
look possible (but using more spectrum per user,) I don't think there will be
a massive push for it either.

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wdb
Let's first start with getting more then 15mbit in major cities like Central
London e.g. like 50-100mbit before we start thinking about 1gbit.

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nthu
I think it'll happen with more competition, especially nimble wireless isps
offering better service than the duopolies.

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ProMarc
In Germany i think it will take 5 up to 10 years. But i hope it will go faster
;-)

