7 ms·

How's the internet service in Chicago these days? Is it AT&T? If not, who's running the show?

by Fiveplus 6y ago

l33r 6y ago
It depends on where you live. In my condo, I pay $20 a month for gigabit fiber.
- cure 6y ago
  Wow, that's very cheap. Is this symmetric gigabit? Usage caps? Who is providing it?
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - OldHand2018 6y ago
    Internet in Chicago is unregulated; it's a completely open market. Many years ago, people got really tired of companies digging up roads, putting in utilities and then repaving the road, only to have some other company come in and dig up the road again a few weeks later. So the city now has an ordinance - if you are going to dig up the road, there has to be an advance public notice, and anyone can lay utilities once you are done but before you've repaved. And once you've repaved, there is some time limit before anyone is allowed to dig up the road again. This makes it pretty cheap to lay dark fiber that will someday get lit up, and now Chicago is reaping the benefits.
- OldHand2018 6y ago
  That's a better deal than in my condo. Our condo board keeps getting offers from other providers, but is too lazy to look into them.
- x87678r 6y ago
  Does the HOA run that? I'm curious.
  - OldHand2018 6y ago
    Yes, the HOA signs a contract and makes the payment, and then adds the per-unit fee to the monthly assessments. These small local ISPs are super efficient - they concentrate on infrastructure and support, with 1 or 2 people for sales and billing: one sale equals hundreds of customers, and hundreds of customers equals a single payment.
    - x87678r 6y ago
      Thanks. I looked at doing the same but got scared off as I wasn't sure about how practical it would be to keep up and running. Maybe I should try harder again. :)
OldHand2018 6y ago
Nobody runs the show. AT&T, Xfinity, RCN, etc are all here, competing with each other. If you live in a dense part of the city, you've got half a dozen other providers to choose from as well. Google-owned WebPass can put a microwave dish on your roof and offer 100+ mb/sec for $50 or less per apartment. Mine is a local company that runs a huge fiber line direct from the nearest exchange center and puts a managed switch in the basement, with each unit having a cat5 line direct to the switch. It's $25 per month for 250 mb/sec symmetrical with direct peering to Amazon, Netflix, Apple, and a few others, and all the common areas like the pool deck and gym have free wifi running at those speeds. I can upgrade to gigabit for an extra $25 per month, which I did for the first few year. But it works so well that I don't bother anymore.
- ppod 6y ago
  What's it like in the kind of places that don't have pool decks?
  - OldHand2018 6y ago
    Not as good. The current subsidized low income internet package is something like $10-15 per month for Xfinity and it's 10-20 mb/sec. The issue is not rich vs. poor. My internet is cheap because our building has contractually guaranteed a single monthly payment on behalf of the many units in the building for some number of years. You can make an investment based on that. The City of Chicago is contractually guaranteeing payment on behalf of an even larger number of people. Any private company can make an investment in better infrastructure based on that. But the City is content with letting Xfinity provide garbage service in exchange for that money. If they City said "we will guarantee payment of up to $15 per month to any entity that can provide gigabit service to low-income families" there would be multiple bids from local companies, and they'd all be able to do it profitably.
    - walrus01 6y ago
      > The issue is not rich vs. poor. My internet is cheap because our building has contractually guaranteed a single monthly payment on behalf of the many units in the building for some number of years. You can make an investment based on that. Also because the economics of making your building a live, on-net premises are much more favorable for the ISP. Their capex to make your building live is based on a calculation for the expected number of units that will sign up in years 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and the revenue projections. In the telecom industry this is an "MDU" - multiple dwelling unit. The cost per unit served in a 65 or 95 unit apartment/condo building is much more favorable as compared to building a new GPON FTTH network (even when 100% aerial on poles) to every house in a neighborhood of individual wood frame houses. You mentioned Webpass above. Where Webpass got started, in the SF bay area, they did precisely what I described above because they could make the economics work by focusing exclusively on MDUs.
selectodude 6y ago
AT&T has pretty much abandoned their fiber rollout here. Everybody can get Comcast, some can get other smaller ISPs depending on neighborhood. Signed- lucky person who pays $57 for symmetric gigabit in west town.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

How's the internet service in Chicago these days? Is it AT&T? If not, who's running the show?

l33r 6y ago

It depends on where you live. In my condo, I pay $20 a month for gigabit fiber.

cure 6y ago
Wow, that's very cheap. Is this symmetric gigabit? Usage caps? Who is providing it?
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- OldHand2018 6y ago
  Internet in Chicago is unregulated; it's a completely open market. Many years ago, people got really tired of companies digging up roads, putting in utilities and then repaving the road, only to have some other company come in and dig up the road again a few weeks later. So the city now has an ordinance - if you are going to dig up the road, there has to be an advance public notice, and anyone can lay utilities once you are done but before you've repaved. And once you've repaved, there is some time limit before anyone is allowed to dig up the road again. This makes it pretty cheap to lay dark fiber that will someday get lit up, and now Chicago is reaping the benefits.
OldHand2018 6y ago
That's a better deal than in my condo. Our condo board keeps getting offers from other providers, but is too lazy to look into them.
x87678r 6y ago
Does the HOA run that? I'm curious.
- OldHand2018 6y ago
  Yes, the HOA signs a contract and makes the payment, and then adds the per-unit fee to the monthly assessments. These small local ISPs are super efficient - they concentrate on infrastructure and support, with 1 or 2 people for sales and billing: one sale equals hundreds of customers, and hundreds of customers equals a single payment.
  - x87678r 6y ago
    Thanks. I looked at doing the same but got scared off as I wasn't sure about how practical it would be to keep up and running. Maybe I should try harder again. :)

OldHand2018 6y ago

Nobody runs the show. AT&T, Xfinity, RCN, etc are all here, competing with each other. If you live in a dense part of the city, you've got half a dozen other providers to choose from as well. Google-owned WebPass can put a microwave dish on your roof and offer 100+ mb/sec for $50 or less per apartment. Mine is a local company that runs a huge fiber line direct from the nearest exchange center and puts a managed switch in the basement, with each unit having a cat5 line direct to the switch. It's $25 per month for 250 mb/sec symmetrical with direct peering to Amazon, Netflix, Apple, and a few others, and all the common areas like the pool deck and gym have free wifi running at those speeds. I can upgrade to gigabit for an extra $25 per month, which I did for the first few year. But it works so well that I don't bother anymore.

ppod 6y ago
What's it like in the kind of places that don't have pool decks?
- OldHand2018 6y ago
  Not as good. The current subsidized low income internet package is something like $10-15 per month for Xfinity and it's 10-20 mb/sec. The issue is not rich vs. poor. My internet is cheap because our building has contractually guaranteed a single monthly payment on behalf of the many units in the building for some number of years. You can make an investment based on that. The City of Chicago is contractually guaranteeing payment on behalf of an even larger number of people. Any private company can make an investment in better infrastructure based on that. But the City is content with letting Xfinity provide garbage service in exchange for that money. If they City said "we will guarantee payment of up to $15 per month to any entity that can provide gigabit service to low-income families" there would be multiple bids from local companies, and they'd all be able to do it profitably.
  - walrus01 6y ago
    > The issue is not rich vs. poor. My internet is cheap because our building has contractually guaranteed a single monthly payment on behalf of the many units in the building for some number of years. You can make an investment based on that. Also because the economics of making your building a live, on-net premises are much more favorable for the ISP. Their capex to make your building live is based on a calculation for the expected number of units that will sign up in years 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and the revenue projections. In the telecom industry this is an "MDU" - multiple dwelling unit. The cost per unit served in a 65 or 95 unit apartment/condo building is much more favorable as compared to building a new GPON FTTH network (even when 100% aerial on poles) to every house in a neighborhood of individual wood frame houses. You mentioned Webpass above. Where Webpass got started, in the SF bay area, they did precisely what I described above because they could make the economics work by focusing exclusively on MDUs.

selectodude 6y ago

AT&T has pretty much abandoned their fiber rollout here. Everybody can get Comcast, some can get other smaller ISPs depending on neighborhood. Signed- lucky person who pays $57 for symmetric gigabit in west town.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]