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Game-changing 1Gbps Fiber Experiment In California
By Taylor Gillespie
Expert Author
Article Date: 2011-06-17
Beyond the United States, much of the modern world enjoy much greater broadband speeds. The U.S. currently shows an average of 11.24 Mbps according to NetIndex and continues to rank below countries such as South Korea, with an average of 32.93 Mbps, which is 66% faster, and Bulgaria at 18.74 Mbps is 40% faster than the U.S. The country ranks 30th on that index of average speeds, and while the U.S. won't suddenly see it's average speed jump, but about 60 homes in California are getting 1 Gbps fiber connections direct from the Internet backbone at less than traditional service fees seen around the country.
In Sonoma County, California, an Internet Service Provider company in Santa Rosa, Sonic.net announced that they are testing 1Gbps fiber connections, complete with telephone service, for about $70 a month. Most of the United States gets meager Internet broadband speed for much more that than cost, easily surpassing the hundred dollar mark. Can you imagine what the Internet would be like with such high speeds. They talk of DVDs in seconds, high-definition video streamed live. It is not surprising that Sonic.net, one of the few more independent Internet Service Providers that is not a part of any media conglomerate, are the one ISP not putting on the brakes, and the one company Google trusts with their fiber network to Stanford faculty homes.
They point out in their announcement, that a High Definition signal from a TV channel uses only one fortieth of a 1 gigabit connection. Many people speculate that the United States' bandwidth speeds are held back because the biggest ISPs are owned by media giants. High speeds are seen as an undercut to the traditional media outlets. The next cable TV. If the economy of rolling out fiber directly to homes and charging such a low service fee is actually feasible, Sonic.net will have enough bandwidth to become a media company, if not augment the current media model.
About the Author:
Taylor is a Staff Writer for WebProNews
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