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My local broadband provider admitted to me that they could offer symmetric 1 gig service, but are choosing not to. The current max a residential customer can p

My local broadband provider admitted to me that they could offer symmetric 1 gig service, but are choosing not to. The current max a residential customer can purchase is 1 gig down, 25Mbs up. The monthly non-discount rate is $180, with $110/month possible with certain promotions. It is an extra 10$/month to go from 20Mbs up to 25Mbs. Starlink is doing well here.

plouffy 6y ago
Good lord, $180 a month ?!! In the UK it's £62 (~87$), though it's not widely available.
- ericmay 6y ago
  It really depends on where you live. Where I live (Ohio, U.S.), 1GB down is $65/month.
  - fetus8 6y ago
    Municipal ISP here in Colorado, is offering 1GB Up/Down for $50 a month.
- ortusdux 6y ago
  It's one of those situations where most customers call at the end of their 1 year promotional period and pretend to threaten to cancel, gets transferred to customer retention, and resign for another year at the discount rate.
- dia80 6y ago
  I'm enjoying 900Mb symmetric from G-network for 48GBP / month. It's been pretty good so far although I wonder if it'll get slow as more people join.
- avianlyric 6y ago
  Enjoying 1Gbs symmetric for £40/month ($56) with Hyperoptic in London. I feel for my US counterparts.
  - iamben 6y ago
    Some of my London friends are using this. Crazy good value and the CS is excellent. We've just moved from 20/2 Talktalk to 200/20 with Virgin for the same price (£30/month). Pretty sure you can get Hyperoptic a couple of streets away, but openreach hasn't got to us yet (hence Virgin). With all the home Zoom calls, TalkTalk was killing me. In 2021 it was frustratingly slow.
  - rayiner 6y ago
    > I feel for my US counterparts. You're comparing London to Middle of Nowhere USA. Gigabit symmetric for $80/month is available all over D.C. (More expensive than London, but incomes here are higher too.)
    - makomk 6y ago
      Not even London as a whole either, I think Hyperoptic mostly only serves high-rise flats with the density to make the install costs justifiable.
    - hogFeast 6y ago
      Yep, live in Middle of Nowhere (ish) UK...I pay £30 for 70mbps, and am very happy. I moved recently from a larger town nearby, there I paid the same price for 20mbps (and it was horrendous service, up/down all day). I live 20 miles from a fairly large city, there is a gigabit loop there...only high rises, average speeds in the city are 70bmps (which is why I feel lucky, I am right next to an exchange). The fibre rollout was completely botched in the UK. BT (the former monopoly) was investing in TV and mobile, the govt has caught up with them now (and agreed to CPI+5% rate increases) but all through the 2010s, the only fibre investment was a startup that did a lot but was obviously limited by capital (CityFibre, just acquired by Goldman Sachs...so that should go well). The sector was also gunshy after the fallout from the late 90s: a big company invested heavily in fast internet and tried to overlay BT's network, it got taken to the woodshed. The only place with consistently fast speeds over 100mbps is a small town/city on the East coast called Hull, due to a quirk of history they are the only place that is outside the BT monopoly (the monopoly there was run by KCom) so they got investment, and pretty much nowhere else did. I am aware of the issues in the US but the UK is not a good example. As said above, telecoms policy through the whole of the 2010s was seriously mismanaged. We will catch up but we aren't a good example (most of the UK population is densely packed into England, which is the size of Alabama but with over 10x the population...even Scotland, which is roughly the size and population density of Alabama, has 75% of the population in 5% of the land...it shouldn't be hard).
djrogers 6y ago
$180 is crazy, even for the US - for less than $100 I'm getting 1GB symmetric (which in practice has been a true 1Gb down, ~300mb up). Then again, I am currently lucky enough to be able to choose between a hone company and a cable company. At my last house, the cable company was my only option and service was not nearly as good (1gb/50).
- pedrocr 6y ago
  > 1GB symmetric (which in practice has been a true 1Gb down, ~300mb up) > service was not nearly as good (1gb/50) Units gore. From context you almost certainly mean Gb/s and Mb/s. mb and gb are weird units that although technically possible don't apply here. GB is possible in this context but probably not what you meant. From context this is mostly understandable, but it makes it harder to follow.
- wincy 6y ago
  Crazy, I get 1gb up and down for $70 a month. It’s a shame Google Fiber didn’t continue to grow, they’re such a great internet provider.
  - cashewchoo 6y ago
    Agreed. I lived in a fiber city for five years and absolutely loved having gfiber as my ISP.
  - mywittyname 6y ago
    You don't even need GF for those prices. My local Bell is $65/mo for 1Gbit symmetrical.
  - the_only_law 6y ago
    Jesus, I pay that much for Spectrum's "up to" 100mbps. Right now speed test is showing me anywhere from .04 to around 40 down and about 10 up, but admittedly, my Wifi setup is less than optimal. There's only a single upgrade package "up to" 400 down.
- lotsofpulp 6y ago
FpUser 6y ago
Toronto Bell: I pay $112.99 including taxes for symmetric 1 gig and static IP. I got it on 3 years promotion with the promise to extend on the same terms.
wjp3 6y ago
Just adding another data point: AT&T fiber - 1G/1G for $115/mo. Austin, TX. Edit: actually get those speeds both ways (~980/980)
paulirwin 6y ago
It is frustrating that people in an area with 1Gbps down are able to sign up for Starlink while I'm still waiting. I would pay $500/mo for Starlink right now. Currently paying $45/mo for "20Mbps/2Mbps" VDSL, $70/mo for "25Mbps/5Mbps" fixed wireless, and $110/mo for 100GB of 45Mbps/10Mbps LTE with $10/10GB overage, to barely stay online in semi-rural America, and I'm technically even in a greater metro area. The only way I can have a reliable video call is by using LTE data. The fact that my household meets the current FCC definition of broadband, such that companies feel like they don't have to invest further because they've met their goal, would be laughable if it weren't so infuriating. I would be over the moon excited for 25Mbps reliable upload, and 100+Mbps download.
- fastball 6y ago
  FYI, I'm currently rural and using Ubifi[1], which is $99 per month for truly Unlimited data on LTE. Might be worth looking into. [1] https://www.ubifi.net/ https://www.ubifi.net/
graton 6y ago
I use Ziply Fiber in Oregon/Washington and get 1Gbps up/down for $60/month (including taxes/fees). Pretty happy about that to be honest. I consider myself relatively lucky.

plouffy 6y ago

Good lord, $180 a month ?!! In the UK it's £62 (~87$), though it's not widely available.

ericmay 6y ago
It really depends on where you live. Where I live (Ohio, U.S.), 1GB down is $65/month.
- fetus8 6y ago
  Municipal ISP here in Colorado, is offering 1GB Up/Down for $50 a month.
ortusdux 6y ago
It's one of those situations where most customers call at the end of their 1 year promotional period and pretend to threaten to cancel, gets transferred to customer retention, and resign for another year at the discount rate.
dia80 6y ago
I'm enjoying 900Mb symmetric from G-network for 48GBP / month. It's been pretty good so far although I wonder if it'll get slow as more people join.
avianlyric 6y ago
Enjoying 1Gbs symmetric for £40/month ($56) with Hyperoptic in London. I feel for my US counterparts.
- iamben 6y ago
  Some of my London friends are using this. Crazy good value and the CS is excellent. We've just moved from 20/2 Talktalk to 200/20 with Virgin for the same price (£30/month). Pretty sure you can get Hyperoptic a couple of streets away, but openreach hasn't got to us yet (hence Virgin). With all the home Zoom calls, TalkTalk was killing me. In 2021 it was frustratingly slow.
- rayiner 6y ago
  > I feel for my US counterparts. You're comparing London to Middle of Nowhere USA. Gigabit symmetric for $80/month is available all over D.C. (More expensive than London, but incomes here are higher too.)
  - makomk 6y ago
    Not even London as a whole either, I think Hyperoptic mostly only serves high-rise flats with the density to make the install costs justifiable.
  - hogFeast 6y ago
    Yep, live in Middle of Nowhere (ish) UK...I pay £30 for 70mbps, and am very happy. I moved recently from a larger town nearby, there I paid the same price for 20mbps (and it was horrendous service, up/down all day). I live 20 miles from a fairly large city, there is a gigabit loop there...only high rises, average speeds in the city are 70bmps (which is why I feel lucky, I am right next to an exchange). The fibre rollout was completely botched in the UK. BT (the former monopoly) was investing in TV and mobile, the govt has caught up with them now (and agreed to CPI+5% rate increases) but all through the 2010s, the only fibre investment was a startup that did a lot but was obviously limited by capital (CityFibre, just acquired by Goldman Sachs...so that should go well). The sector was also gunshy after the fallout from the late 90s: a big company invested heavily in fast internet and tried to overlay BT's network, it got taken to the woodshed. The only place with consistently fast speeds over 100mbps is a small town/city on the East coast called Hull, due to a quirk of history they are the only place that is outside the BT monopoly (the monopoly there was run by KCom) so they got investment, and pretty much nowhere else did. I am aware of the issues in the US but the UK is not a good example. As said above, telecoms policy through the whole of the 2010s was seriously mismanaged. We will catch up but we aren't a good example (most of the UK population is densely packed into England, which is the size of Alabama but with over 10x the population...even Scotland, which is roughly the size and population density of Alabama, has 75% of the population in 5% of the land...it shouldn't be hard).

djrogers 6y ago

$180 is crazy, even for the US - for less than $100 I'm getting 1GB symmetric (which in practice has been a true 1Gb down, ~300mb up). Then again, I am currently lucky enough to be able to choose between a hone company and a cable company. At my last house, the cable company was my only option and service was not nearly as good (1gb/50).

pedrocr 6y ago
> 1GB symmetric (which in practice has been a true 1Gb down, ~300mb up) > service was not nearly as good (1gb/50) Units gore. From context you almost certainly mean Gb/s and Mb/s. mb and gb are weird units that although technically possible don't apply here. GB is possible in this context but probably not what you meant. From context this is mostly understandable, but it makes it harder to follow.
wincy 6y ago
Crazy, I get 1gb up and down for $70 a month. It’s a shame Google Fiber didn’t continue to grow, they’re such a great internet provider.
- cashewchoo 6y ago
  Agreed. I lived in a fiber city for five years and absolutely loved having gfiber as my ISP.
- mywittyname 6y ago
  You don't even need GF for those prices. My local Bell is $65/mo for 1Gbit symmetrical.
- the_only_law 6y ago
  Jesus, I pay that much for Spectrum's "up to" 100mbps. Right now speed test is showing me anywhere from .04 to around 40 down and about 10 up, but admittedly, my Wifi setup is less than optimal. There's only a single upgrade package "up to" 400 down.
lotsofpulp 6y ago

FpUser 6y ago

Toronto Bell: I pay $112.99 including taxes for symmetric 1 gig and static IP. I got it on 3 years promotion with the promise to extend on the same terms.

wjp3 6y ago

Just adding another data point: AT&T fiber - 1G/1G for $115/mo. Austin, TX. Edit: actually get those speeds both ways (~980/980)

paulirwin 6y ago

It is frustrating that people in an area with 1Gbps down are able to sign up for Starlink while I'm still waiting. I would pay $500/mo for Starlink right now. Currently paying $45/mo for "20Mbps/2Mbps" VDSL, $70/mo for "25Mbps/5Mbps" fixed wireless, and $110/mo for 100GB of 45Mbps/10Mbps LTE with $10/10GB overage, to barely stay online in semi-rural America, and I'm technically even in a greater metro area. The only way I can have a reliable video call is by using LTE data. The fact that my household meets the current FCC definition of broadband, such that companies feel like they don't have to invest further because they've met their goal, would be laughable if it weren't so infuriating. I would be over the moon excited for 25Mbps reliable upload, and 100+Mbps download.

fastball 6y ago
FYI, I'm currently rural and using Ubifi[1], which is $99 per month for truly Unlimited data on LTE. Might be worth looking into. [1] https://www.ubifi.net/ https://www.ubifi.net/

graton 6y ago

I use Ziply Fiber in Oregon/Washington and get 1Gbps up/down for $60/month (including taxes/fees). Pretty happy about that to be honest. I consider myself relatively lucky.