I finally have a decent reason to hope this will happen sooner than later. I don't care who gets to me first, at this price point, you have a deal!

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/06/1gbps-fiber-for-70in-america-yup.ars

Quote :

" 1Gbps fiber for $70—in America? Yup. American ISPs have convinced us that Internet access is expensive—getting speeds of 100Mbps will set most people back by more than $100 a month, assuming the service is even available. Where I live in Chicago, Comcast's 105Mbps service goes for a whopping $199.95 ("premium installation" and cable modem not included). Which is why it was so refreshing to see the scrappy California ISP Sonic.net this week roll out its new 1Gbps, fiber-to-the-home service… for $69.99 a month. Sonic.net has been around since 1994, selling DSL service in California, but it has recently expanded into fiber; the company has even secured the contract to manage Google's own 1Gbps fiber network that will connect 800+ faculty homes at Stanford University. Sonic.net's new approach to broadband involves stringing its own fiber lines to homes and offering bargain-basement pricing; indeed, the new 1Gbps offering is the same price as the company's earlier bonded 40Mbps DSL offering (in which two phones lines each provide 20Mbps of bandwidth to a home). The price even includes a pair of VoIP phone numbers. Is this really a sustainable model? After all, Comcast offers 1.5Mbps service for a list price of $40; Sonic.net's new offering is more than 600x faster at twice the price. Dane Jasper, Sonic.net's CEO, tells me that the new fiber-to-the-home deployment is a trial and will reach about 700 homes when complete. "Honestly, only as those wrap up will we have a complete picture of the economic model," he says. "But I believe that fast service for a low cost is possible." If the pilot in Sebastopol, California goes well, Sonic.net hopes to expand the service across the region. Jasper doesn't think like a typical US Internet exec; in an interview last year, he made clear that his company tries to avoid artificial limits as a way to make more money. "The natural model when you have a simple duopoly capturing the majority of the market is segmentation: maximize ARPU [average revenue per user] by artificially limiting service in order to drive additional monthly spending. But fundamentally this is the wrong model for a service provider like us, and we have looked to Europe for inspiration… I believe that removing the artificial limits on speed, and including home phone with the product are both very exciting." Though the current trial is small-scale, Sonic.net's pricing reminds us just how much room there is in the US Internet market for truly disruptive pricing of the kind that Google has been promising—but on a much larger scale—with its 1Gbps fiber builds in Kansas City, Missouri and Kansas City, Kansas. "

6/10/2011 4:53:44 PM

Quote :

"Dane Jasper, Sonic.net's CEO, tells me that the new fiber-to-the-home deployment is a trial and will reach about 700 homes when complete. "Honestly, only as those wrap up will we have a complete picture of the economic model,""

lol.

"haha yes!! our fiber is so cheap!! *has litterally no idea what it costs*

6/10/2011 4:56:40 PM

twc will continue to lobby for laws that make this impossible in nc

6/10/2011 6:26:23 PM

Signed

6/10/2011 7:12:02 PM

^^ Na this is a private company. They just won a govt contract. Nothing TWC can do against that.

6/10/2011 10:19:14 PM

i hate twc.

6/11/2011 11:32:24 AM