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EPB launches America’s first community-wide 25 gig internet service

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Re: EPB launches America’s first community-wide 25 gig internet service

#61
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This has been going on for a while, comments like this and the recent Tennessean article/debacle are a bit eye opening to the naivety of technology and accomplishments outside of major hubs.

Let me tell you the story of CA attempting to build high speed rail..

“real estate is expensive and NIMBYs don’t want it”… the end.

(Also the story of why Hyperloop is pointless. technology isn’t the problem that needs solving! Fast rapid transit tech has existed since the 1980’s and it’s not the cost issue.)

Re: EPB launches America’s first community-wide 25 gig internet service

#62
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

20 years ago you'd have said the same thing about dsl to broadband, and if everyone had that same mentality, Netflix would still be mailing dvds and not offering 4k streaming. Innovation is good.

I think the difference is that 20 years Gbit ethernet was becoming standard issue on desktops while even 10Gbit ethernet is still pretty rare outside of the data centre and switch uplinks today. 25Gbit internet will be great for schools, libraries, and offices with multiple users but it's going to be a while before it becomes relevant for individual homes.

10/40Gb hasn't been the standard in data centers in a number of years. My house is entirely 10Gb (save for wireless), in part because older enterprise gear at those speeds is so cheap.

25/50 and 100/400 have supplanted 10/40 in the data center, and 800Gb is here now.

Re: EPB launches America’s first community-wide 25 gig internet service

#63
post #9

Wow this reads like an announcement from a different timeline (like the one that was promised when fiber was promoted in the early 2000s). 25Gb/s symmetric? In the middle of Tennessee? Meanwhile I have traffic-shaped Comcast and no fiber in sight in Silicon Valley.

> Meanwhile I have traffic-shaped Comcast and no fiber in sight in Silicon Valley. Isn't the SF bay area more of a geography issue than an incumbent monopoly issue? I'm sure its a mixture of both, but also a geography issue.

No, what would geography have to do with it? Fiber can be run on poles or underground throughout the Bay Area — it’s an incumbent monopoly issue.

Re: EPB launches America’s first community-wide 25 gig internet service

#64
post #12

I don't really see the point - impressed that they offered it, but how many people truly need it? I have 1G symmetric FTTH internet, the bottleneck is still the services I want to access at the other end - really makes no difference how much faster the pipe is, if the service you are using can't keep up. Will some people benefit?? sure - a handful of power users doing massive uploads and downloads for commercial purp…

That's the maximum, right? I would imagine they have plans from sub-gigabit up to 25G. I know I'd absolutely love the option of 10G for a reasonable price (thousand(s)?). Heck, I'd be overjoyed to get symmetrical 100 Mbps, and I'd gladly pay a few hundred for it. Meanwhile my Dad has 500/500 AT&T Fiber, and he pays half what I pay for 930/35 Charter Spectrum cable :(

I have 10Gb symmetrical to the home in the Bay Area for ~$40/mo. Thousands? Really?

Re: EPB launches America’s first community-wide 25 gig internet service

#65
post #9

Wow this reads like an announcement from a different timeline (like the one that was promised when fiber was promoted in the early 2000s). 25Gb/s symmetric? In the middle of Tennessee? Meanwhile I have traffic-shaped Comcast and no fiber in sight in Silicon Valley.

> Meanwhile I have traffic-shaped Comcast and no fiber in sight in Silicon Valley. Isn't the SF bay area more of a geography issue than an incumbent monopoly issue? I'm sure its a mixture of both, but also a geography issue.

It's a five minute bike ride on flat land from Google HQ (mostly along utility right of way) to housing with Drive 10-20 miles, and you'll be in areas where AT&T decided to sell the lines to a bankrupt telco. Looking at the lines in those areas is entertaining. The telephone poles were installed by some ancient secret society named "GTE", and now have 20 degree bows. When lines loosen up and block traffic, the usually just tie them up on to some nearby tree branch.

If you look really carefully, you'll occasionally see fiber points of presence dangling precariously from this mess of caution tape and guy-wire.

It's not all bad news: I know of communities outside of telco right of way that managed to tap into one of those.

Last time I heard they were debating between 1 gig symmetric to each home or paying a couple hundred bucks (one time) per house to get something comparable to what you'd expect in Tennessee.

It's definitely a problem with incumbent monopolies.

Re: EPB launches America’s first community-wide 25 gig internet service

#66
post #20

No wonder Comcast has been very active in lobbying to prevent other utilities from providing Internet[1]. 1 - https://www.theverge.com/2015/5/1/8530403/chattanooga-comcas...

The problem with municipal Internet is the town will build it out once, and then never upgrade the technology while it slowly becomes obsolete . Seriously though, municipal fiber is fantastic. I've been an observer to friends having conversations about Internet provider woes, while I just sit there shaking my head. I've only got 1Gb but I rarely care about the bandwidth, consistent <15ms ping to close data centers, t…

The OP story is literally the municipal provider delivering 25x faster service over 12 years. The "never upgrade the technology" provider is usually going to be monopoly Comcast, because they know your other option is a can and string.

Re: EPB launches America’s first community-wide 25 gig internet service

#67

Cool, but try to get 25Gbps on your mac. It's tough. We have our own 10 gig symmetrical fiber backbone connection and wanted 25Gbps on a mac in our film production facility. Thunderbolt maxes out at 40Gbps so you're already close to the max data transfer rate for a peripheral. We had to use ATTO's hardware which is bulky, a pain to configure on a macbook (you need to bond two interfaces) and honestly most of the time…

Please, Br’er Fiber, don’t throw me in the 25 Gbps patch. Anything but that.

Seriously, I would be happy to take up the challenge if someone is willing to provide such service.

More seriously, that bandwidth probably doesn’t go to a single computer — those of us with multiple people in the household working or playing from home can do more & better things simultaneously.

Re: EPB launches America’s first community-wide 25 gig internet service

#68
post #59

I think things like this are great because they will finally start to create pressure to commodify >1gbps networking in the home. The industry has some work to do here. I've been on Sonic 10G for almost a year now and LOVE it, but it's definitely been a sore spot to get things set up to expect those kinds of speeds - prosumer 10G switches are vastly more expensive per-port, wired consumer devices don't typically supp…

I wonder how much of a push this will really be?

For the vast majority of people even vanilla gigabit is of limited benefit... that's on the edge of what a consumer SSD is writing at.

Re: EPB launches America’s first community-wide 25 gig internet service

#70
post #68
post #59

I think things like this are great because they will finally start to create pressure to commodify >1gbps networking in the home. The industry has some work to do here. I've been on Sonic 10G for almost a year now and LOVE it, but it's definitely been a sore spot to get things set up to expect those kinds of speeds - prosumer 10G switches are vastly more expensive per-port, wired consumer devices don't typically supp…

I wonder how much of a push this will really be? For the vast majority of people even vanilla gigabit is of limited benefit... that's on the edge of what a consumer SSD is writing at.

Right - the popular sentiment on my smallish town Facebook group is people dropping their 300mbps cable since Spectrum is an awful company to deal with in favor of cell-based (T-mobile or Verizon) home service. 90%+ of people in most areas don't need internet any faster than Netflix requires, and nobody is running ethernet so WiFi speeds are going to be the limiting factor in internet speed for most everyone else.
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