4 ms·

I think past around 20Mbit or so the returns are diminishing. My flat has 400Mbit or so from Virgin, and although the WiFi is excellent (uncontended airwaves ar

I think past around 20Mbit or so the returns are diminishing. My flat has 400Mbit or so from Virgin, and although the WiFi is excellent (uncontended airwaves around here), actually availing of it requires you perched within reasonable proximity of the router, and pulling from a site with a large enough outbound pipe. On average it is probably fair to expect 8Mbit/s egress from any particular Internet site, with worst case much lower than that. Probably the faster connection has some latency benefit, but on the whole I wouldn't factor "super fast Internet" into choosing my next place to live

nitrogen 6y ago
Where fast download speeds shine are software installations and updates on hard-wired devices. The less time I have to wait for updates before I can launch a game or app the better. In the US when I had fiber I would see Steam hit 80MB (megabytes) per second. But the really important thing is upload speed. It shouldn't take ten minutes to upload a two minute video master to YouTube. Also off-site backups of large files would be nice, but is too slow over cable modem upload speeds.
mcny 6y ago
Things are a little different When you have multiple people trying to work from home. Even if a single connection is limited to 8Mbps a fatter pipe helps because you have more than one connection at any given time. Oh and fiber can do xMbps both ways I believe. Even Comcast gigabit is only 30Mbps up. Where in the US can I get: 1. Cheap land to build a house 2. Under half an hour drive to Costco/sams club 3. Paved road to property 4. Water and sewage 5. Electricity 6. Fiber gigabit Internet What else am I missing?
- noodlesUK 6y ago
  A considerable part of the Portland metro area has FTTP, and it extends into the semi-rural areas past eg wilsonville
- easton 6y ago
  Chattanooga, Tennessee is the best bet right now, I believe. (Of course, depending on your definition of cheap land. But the internet bit is covered, and they have Sams). Internet: https://epb.com/home-store/internet https://epb.com/home-store/internet
- NortySpock 6y ago
  Kansas City suburbs. Though Google has halted their Google Fiber expansion plans, AT&T has a fiber service.
- toast0 6y ago
  I notice your list doesn't include a decent commute to work. You can probably find somewhere in washington state that meets that, although for cheap land, you'll need to avoid population centers. And you'll need to pick a lot carefully. Electric coverage is pretty complete on paved roads, but water, sewage, and fiber networks aren't guaranteed. Well and septic isn't too bad, if the system is well built and the lot is appropriate (well needs an aquifer, septic needs a big enough flat patch and appropriate soils).
- bluGill 6y ago
  Many midwest small cities. In the Des Moines area you can get all that within an easy biking distance of costco.
tialaramex 6y ago
The returns are indeed diminishing. But in a multi-person household I can totally buy that 20Mbps just doesn't feel like enough. If one of you is doing a big download and then two more try to watch Netflix, that's going to suck. Some of this is made worse because of Buffer Bloat (which you should cure), but ultimately 20Mbps won't stretch very far in a typical 3-4 person household, and some British homes have half a dozen or more Internet users (a newborn isn't using the Internet, but both a toddler watching a cartoon and grandma catching up with old friends on Zoom are). Also in practice the same services (even if with different branding) are offered to small businesses. If you can't afford to lease serious offer space that might come with dedicated fibre you'll be buying whatever the fastest broadband available to consumers is, and maybe paying extra for it. So if the best available was 20Mbps that's going to suck for an office of twenty people. So I'm comfortable with plans that say (a) it makes sense to deploy fibre where you're going from scratch and (b) it makes sense to offer 1Gbps where practical even if most of your price sensitive customers are happy at more like 50Mbps. My scepticism is reserved for people who insist that (a) anything less than fibre to every home is a betrayal and (b) everybody "needs" gigabit or better because this will enable some mythical yet-to-be invented new service that justifies the excess.

nitrogen 6y ago

Where fast download speeds shine are software installations and updates on hard-wired devices. The less time I have to wait for updates before I can launch a game or app the better. In the US when I had fiber I would see Steam hit 80MB (megabytes) per second. But the really important thing is upload speed. It shouldn't take ten minutes to upload a two minute video master to YouTube. Also off-site backups of large files would be nice, but is too slow over cable modem upload speeds.

mcny 6y ago

Things are a little different When you have multiple people trying to work from home. Even if a single connection is limited to 8Mbps a fatter pipe helps because you have more than one connection at any given time. Oh and fiber can do xMbps both ways I believe. Even Comcast gigabit is only 30Mbps up. Where in the US can I get: 1. Cheap land to build a house 2. Under half an hour drive to Costco/sams club 3. Paved road to property 4. Water and sewage 5. Electricity 6. Fiber gigabit Internet What else am I missing?

noodlesUK 6y ago
A considerable part of the Portland metro area has FTTP, and it extends into the semi-rural areas past eg wilsonville
easton 6y ago
Chattanooga, Tennessee is the best bet right now, I believe. (Of course, depending on your definition of cheap land. But the internet bit is covered, and they have Sams). Internet: https://epb.com/home-store/internet https://epb.com/home-store/internet
NortySpock 6y ago
Kansas City suburbs. Though Google has halted their Google Fiber expansion plans, AT&T has a fiber service.
toast0 6y ago
I notice your list doesn't include a decent commute to work. You can probably find somewhere in washington state that meets that, although for cheap land, you'll need to avoid population centers. And you'll need to pick a lot carefully. Electric coverage is pretty complete on paved roads, but water, sewage, and fiber networks aren't guaranteed. Well and septic isn't too bad, if the system is well built and the lot is appropriate (well needs an aquifer, septic needs a big enough flat patch and appropriate soils).
bluGill 6y ago
Many midwest small cities. In the Des Moines area you can get all that within an easy biking distance of costco.

tialaramex 6y ago

The returns are indeed diminishing. But in a multi-person household I can totally buy that 20Mbps just doesn't feel like enough. If one of you is doing a big download and then two more try to watch Netflix, that's going to suck. Some of this is made worse because of Buffer Bloat (which you should cure), but ultimately 20Mbps won't stretch very far in a typical 3-4 person household, and some British homes have half a dozen or more Internet users (a newborn isn't using the Internet, but both a toddler watching a cartoon and grandma catching up with old friends on Zoom are). Also in practice the same services (even if with different branding) are offered to small businesses. If you can't afford to lease serious offer space that might come with dedicated fibre you'll be buying whatever the fastest broadband available to consumers is, and maybe paying extra for it. So if the best available was 20Mbps that's going to suck for an office of twenty people. So I'm comfortable with plans that say (a) it makes sense to deploy fibre where you're going from scratch and (b) it makes sense to offer 1Gbps where practical even if most of your price sensitive customers are happy at more like 50Mbps. My scepticism is reserved for people who insist that (a) anything less than fibre to every home is a betrayal and (b) everybody "needs" gigabit or better because this will enable some mythical yet-to-be invented new service that justifies the excess.