Tag: gigabit

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AT&T Gigabit U-Verse Now Live in Dallas, Texas – Coming Soon to Surrounding Cities

DFW_localIt’s slow going, but more cities and communities are starting to receive faster fiber based broadband. AT&T announced improvements to the areas around Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas.

Gigabit data is now available to residents and businesses in Highland Park and University Park. The rest of the area will have access to 100Mbps data rates, but those residents and businesses should have access to gigabit by the end of 2014.

Pricing for gigabit data starts at $120 month, and AT&T expects to spread this service throughout North Texas over the next several years, as part of a larger initiative which should see improved broadband service to several other large cities throughout the South East.

You can read Big Blue’s full press release below.

Continue reading “AT&T Gigabit U-Verse Now Live in Dallas, Texas – Coming Soon to Surrounding Cities”

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Mayor of Chattanooga Does Reddit AMA on Providing Community Funded Fiber Broadband

It’s been an ongoing debate, now focused on State vs Federal rights. Should the FCC have the right to circumvent state law, to help smaller communities provide broadband data to their residents.

Chattanooga TN has become a poster child for how to rollout gigabit fiber paid with public funds, beating Google Fiber to gigabit speeds in 2010, but state law prevents the project from expanding into other communities. Four years after Chattanooga reached gigabit, most large cable broadband markets still struggle to reach one tenth the network speed of “Gig City”, and most consumers pay significantly more for slower broadband.

The city could also become the first piece of a new smart energy grid for the country.

chattanooga speed test gigabit fiber broadbandChattanooga Mayor Andy Berke and Harold DePriest, CEO of EPB (Chattanooga’s electric company which manages the broadband project) took to Reddit to answer questions about how the project has impacted their residents.  It’s an interesting discussion, delving into the politics of dealing with the FCC and State governments, but if your data is slow in your area, seeing speedtests like the one linked from the AMA might break your heart a little bit.

You can see a video detailing Chatanooga’s efforts to build a smarter energy grid below.

EPB SmarterGrid HD from EPB Fiber Optics on Vimeo.

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House GOP Attack FCC and Local Tax Payer Funded Internet Access

GOP rep marsha blackburnIf a community of people vote to approve tax payer funded internet access, should they be allowed to build their own network?

House Conservatives say “no”, that people at the state and local level should not be allowed the right to decide for themselves how to improve their internet access. Why? Because free market, competition, taxes, reasons.

In a frustrating example of political double-speak, Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) introduced an amendment to the 2015 Financial Services Appropriations Bill which would “prevent the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from trampling on the rights of states when it comes to municipal broadband“. How does it protect states rights? By making it illegal for states and municipalities to petition the FCC for permission to build tax payer funded data networks. This amendment was of course approved by a vote of 223-200.

Continue reading “House GOP Attack FCC and Local Tax Payer Funded Internet Access”

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AT&T Looking to Bring 1Gbps Fiber to 21 Major Metro Areas

How fast is 1 GBPS?Competition is good.

AT&T is looking to bring 1Gbps fiber internet connections to over 100 cities and municipalities. On the list are 21 major metropolitan areas including my current home city Los Angeles.

“Californians are inventing and adopting new technologies every day. With today’s announcement, we stand ready to work with local leaders to bring AT&T U-verse with GigaPower to our state.  This incredible technology will enable California entrepreneurs to innovate like never before and will give consumers the choice of an ultra-fast fiber network connection,” AT&T’s California President, Ken McNeely said.

Comcast has been upgrading connections to 100Mbps (one tenth the speed of gigabit fiber), Verizon has been stagnant with its FiOS offerings, but apparently the slow pressure building from Google Fiber was enough to move Big Blue to start offering up “GigaPower” to more consumers and businesses.

Whoever can run a line to my house first wins my business and some fresh baked brownies. You can read the full press release below.

Continue reading “AT&T Looking to Bring 1Gbps Fiber to 21 Major Metro Areas”

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Google and IBM want to make the internet a LOT faster, but will consumers ever get the upgrades?

server rack rear cablingWithin a day of each other, complimentary stories about Google and IBM hit the net.

Google is working on plans to improve their fiber offerings from 1Gbps to 10Gbps, meaning their uploads and downloads would be 200 and 2000 times faster than what I currently have access to in Los Angeles. We can also easily estimate that the service would be cheaper than the top tier broadband in So-Cal. Originally their plan was to roll out 10Gbps connections over the next decade, but in light of 4K video services popping up to supply people native resolution content for their new TV’s, they’ve shortened that window to three years. The internet is going to need bigger pipes to handle future services.

And if you think Google’s data sounds audacious, IBM has even bigger goals in their sites.  Continue reading “Google and IBM want to make the internet a LOT faster, but will consumers ever get the upgrades?”

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Romanian ISP to roll out $18 a Month Gigabit Fiber

1381245927--ofertaWell color me jealous… Again…

Not only are people in Kansas City lit up, folks in Austin will finally receive some actual competition, and Provo is about to flip the switch, but where else in the world will people get amazing fiber-optic-to-the-home internet connections?

Romania.

Romanian ISP RCS & RDS is rolling out new fiber and upgrading their backhaul. Not only will their customers have 500Mbps and 1Gbps tiers, the top service will only cost the equivalent of $18 a month. Yup. 1000Mbps data will cost less than one Andrew Jackson a month. Yikes… Kinda kicks that TWC “50 megs innernet” right in the junk…

(via Reddit)

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Google Fiber Lights Up Provo This Month

googe fiber provo video broadband comparisonHow excited are people for faster internet access? They’re lit up enough to be producing their own commercials.

No seriously, we could be looking at the beginnings of some real groundswell awareness here. The numbers are so huge, they’re difficult to visualize. Throughout most of California, the fastest service we might have access to is 50Mbps download and 6Mbps uploading, but my sustained data rates are usually lower than that. Right now, people are sharing Google Fiber speed tests which crush the best I can get. It’s not even close. I’m seeing downloads more than 20 times faster, and uploads 180 times faster.

Think about it every time you upload a photo on social media, or a video to YouTube. Would you want a 5Mbps data rate or a 900Mbps data rate? Think about every time you fire up Netflix while everyone else in your house is using their own smartphone or tablet or game console. Would you want “50 megs innernet” or 900 megs to feed all those glowing rectangles?

See those numbers start to get big, so the people of Provo shot this handy little video to help you visualize the differences between the service you spend a lot of money on, and the service Google offers for pretty much the same price.

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