Fiber! Is it the Future?

[irv]

I have had Fiber to my house for a couple of years now, but I was still using old coax cable inside so I felt I was still in the dark ages. About two weeks ago I had my house wired with fiber and I'm loving it. Clearer TV and streaming movies, faster Internet, and clearer phone service.
I see now that in KC business' can get fiber server for $100 per month. See LINK (http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/blog/bizventures-kc/2014/11/google-fiber-small-business-service.html). This is gigabit service. I know there is a war going on right now with the announcement of President Barack Obama’s push to reclassify internet access as a public utility. I feel with the government stepping in it will hurt. In fact some companies have stopped laying fiber because of this announcement.
I just feel this will hurt the consumer.

[ian-weisser]

In fact some companies have stopped laying fiber because of this announcement.

Well, AT&T claimed to stop it's fiber plans...which were so vague as to seem vaporware already. So I don't think they should count. Who else stopped?

And a Good Job to the FCC for catching AT&T on their fiber lie.

[irv]

When I was talking about a war I based this statement on this article. Don’t Blame Big Cable. It’s Local Governments That Choke Broadband Competition (http://www.wired.com/2013/07/we-need-to-stop-focusing-on-just-cable-companies-and-blame-local-government-for-dismal-broadband-competition/)

[ian-weisser]

I'm annoyed with every small political disagreement being called a 'war' (two-tour veteran). But let's overlook that sore point.

I don't really see any relation between an article on poor local regulation and a proposed national policy change that has no apparent effect on those lousy local regulators...and isn't supposed to.

[pqwoerituytrueiwoq]

When I was talking about a war I based this statement on this article. Don’t Blame Big Cable. It’s Local Governments That Choke Broadband Competition (http://www.wired.com/2013/07/we-need-to-stop-focusing-on-just-cable-companies-and-blame-local-government-for-dismal-broadband-competition/)and here i was thinking all the cable companies got together and agreed not to build in each others turfs so they can have monopolies when really the absurd cost of dealing with the government makes it unprofitable/not worth it to build where they don't have a monopoly

[bapoumba]

Please try to leave politics out of this discussion. Not easy, I know :)

[HermanAB]

Fibre isn't the future. Fibre is now. I have no idea what the future holds!

[irv]

We had the same problems with running Electrical wire in the early 1900's. I enjoyed watching the Documentary Tesla: Master of Lightning. (http://www.netflix.com/WiMovie/70085596?trkid=13752290)

Last Aug. PC World had an article Record-smashing 43Tbps transfer speed over single fiber achieved (http://www.pcworld.com/article/2461080/danish-university-transfers-data-at-recordbreaking-43tbps-over-a-single-fiber.html) that was really good. I guess Fiber is now, but what I meant by the future is not all area have fiber and that is the future but we have to stop fighting and sit down and talk about getting the job done. What I am saying is I live in a small town and we have fiber because way-back-when, we sat down and talked about getting it done. Many small towns in southeast Minnesota has high-speed Internet because we got the job done.

[leclerc65]

The Internet Big Three in Canada are way too greedy !
I am doing OK with 5/1 , phone and an i4770 desktop, my tablets suffer a bit though. That's 50$/mo with taxes - I am on retirement, don't want to pay too much on these things.

[irv]

Like I said in the opening post I just had my house re-wired with fiber for TV, Phone, and Internet. I also had all new digital boxes installed. For all three services on the old system I was paying about $119 per month, but my last bill was $149. A $30 jump. I felt the increase was Okay because of the quality of service. I rent all of the equipment (3 boxes, and a Digital DVR). I have a 50 mbps Internet, which most of the time when running off my wireless router the top speed on wifi is about 22 mbps. I mostly watch HD TV and stream HD videos. I am not to worried about the phone. The cost on the phone is about $12 per month. I need to take all three services to lower the cost overall. I save about $35 this way. I also have 2 pre-paid cells but never use them much.

[rewyllys]

Since last February we've had fiber into our house and all the way to our router. We have 1 Gb service from Grande Communications for $70/month, and it works very nicely. Yes, we're fortunate enough to live in Austin, TX, where AT&T, Google, Grande, and Time-Warner all actually _compete_ (or will soon, when Google finishes laying its fiber cables; the other three have been competing for years).

[irv]

Competition is good for the consumer.
I grabbed a speed test on my wifi and I see my upload speed is better than my download.
258010

[Gustaf_Alhll]

We're about to get fiber here. In my home town, Trollhättan, are they making (Connecting? Building? I dunno) fiber to a lot of houses (That has paid for it). I'm one of them.

[pqwoerituytrueiwoq]

Competition is good for the consumer.
I grabbed a speed test on my wifi and I see my upload speed is better than my download.
258010
try it hard wired
i have cable service here
http://www.speedtest.net/result/3914483533.png

[mips]

Competition is good for the consumer.
I grabbed a speed test on my wifi and I see my upload speed is better than my download.
258010

That's not that great for a fiber based service. What speed did you sign up for?
Over here you can get 40Mb/s via a copper based vdsl service (granted it's asymmetrical thus the upload speed is much lower)

[irv]

That's not that great for a fiber based service. What speed did you sign up for?
Over here you can get 40Mb/s via a copper based vdsl service (granted it's asymmetrical thus the upload speed is much lower)

If I hook my laptop on the wire I get speeds up and a over 50 mbps (which I am paying for). What I posted was on my wifi. That is limited by your router speed which in most cases is around 22 to 23 mbps tops.