Gigabit Internet

[reidfo]

CenturyLink announced recently that our smallish city of Apopka Florida was going to be getting gigabit (symmetrical) internet soon. It's fiber to the home, and I can see the fiber crews working in our neighborhood just about 5 blocks away and getting closer. Can't wait!

I've had a CenturyLink land line for several years and DSL that I use for work. Anybody have experience with their fiber / gigabit service? I know they've rolled it out in other cities. Anyone know if I can get a static IP with residential service? The local reps aren't too knowledgeable on the offering yet.

[Deane Johnson]

I've had the CL Gigabyte service for a few months now. At first, my download speed was about 950 Mbps, recently, it's been about 95 Mbps so I need to check into why. CL customer service in my city (Omaha) is pretty abysmal.

When it was at 950 Mbps, I most often didn't see a huge difference in speed over my old Cox which ran about 35 Mbps. I'm assuming that's because the sites I access don't have overly fast service to begin. I don't really know.

I don't download large files, no streaming, no movies, no music, so my experience is maybe not typical.

Given my personal experience, if I had it to do over again, I would probably not switch off my Cox as I don't feel I got much advantage. I assume if you're coming off DSL, it might be a nice improvement.

I can't answer your question on the static IP address. Those things are above my pay grade.

[reidfo]

I currently have both cable and DSL. The cable service is 20Mbps down, 2 up. The DSL is 1.5Mbps down, and I think 256kbps up. I use the DSL exclusively for VoIP (SIP). I'm hoping that I can eliminate the cable service completely and use the CenturyLink gigabit for both voice and data.

I do expect that most sites will be much slower than gigabit, since it's not all that common for hosting providers to offer that kind of speed. I'm hoping though that large companies like Google, Microsoft, etc. will offer higher speeds than what I'm getting now.

[Deane Johnson]

I just remembered that I had changed a switcher out a few days ago. It was one the Century Link Gigabyte installer had left. I got to thinking I should check it's speed and discovered it's 10/100. No wonder my speed dropped to 100 Mbps.

I had a 10/100/1000 switch here so I swapped it out. My speed is now back around 800-900 Mbps download and about 950 Mbps upload. With Centurylink Gigabyte, the upload is frequently faster than the download.

[Pete]

Very nice guys!

In Florida FIOS, Verizon and Comcast replaced the older infrastructure which was a good thing. That said its only 50 homes there.

Here in the midwest Comcast is using the 15 year old infrastructure which works fine. AT&T has started to do their stuff; boxo gravestones and from what can see and talking to them are using the Comcast infrastructure which is probably going to cause issues. The copper is still in place and my assumption was that they were going to install fiber and replace the old copper telco lines with CatXX. Rather they are utilizing the RG6 (?) that already is in place. Guessing it cheaper for them. I did state to them I wanted to keep the cable and have Uverse. I did get a deal for a good price on the AT&T Uverse stuff up until they mentioned a $100 installation fee (?) and a rental box (and I wanted my own) provided for one year before rental rates kicked in. I would have preferred to see fiber run by Verizon (they are also in town). Here too though subdivision is small at around 100 homes.

[donstephens]

Color me jealous

[Pete]

Don, you mentioned installation of fiber nearby; well a couple of years ago?

Are we there yet?

[donstephens]

In my dreams, Pete. In my dreams. I keep asking but...

[randy]

CenturyLink is rolling out Gigabit service in Denver starting about three months ago at $149 per month or $80 per month for the first year when bundled with phone. Unfortunately it is not planned for the suburbs. Also unfortunately, they are pretty mum on where in Denver it will be available. They are also planning on offering their own Fios like Prism TV service.

[Pete]

The current speeds are nice and what I have noticed is that I have no issues today streaming HD with my broadband cable. Only pay attention when the picture or if the picture stutters or gets pixelated; which it seldom does. Same with the FIOS connection. I do notice that the FIOS telephone is a bit noisier than the copper over here in the midwest. It is working though with the alarm panel CS just fine these days.

I played a bit yesterday and was impressed that I could use the remote and go back to one part of the streaming movie; very DVR like. A few months back did a Gb FTP transfer of a 16Gb linux image to the UK. I was surprised how quick it was desktop to desktop.

As stated earlier you can do everything now with just a broadband connection to the internet. Its been a few years ago now I did see a Microsoft TV service carried by fiber and I was impressed with the over 500 channels of service provided.

I found a "cable" internet streaming service a few days ago; with tiers configured just like broadband cable TV. HD; multiple channels et al; just a bit expensive right now. It is meant for US persons living / working outside of the us wherever they are; IE: Expatriates. You do have to provide a US address and probably provide a passport or other valid ID to get it. That said I can see folks paying a premium to watch cable streaming services when abroad. While working with peers in the UK; they all had their Slingboxes configured to watch Monday night football.

[NeverDie]

When it was at 950 Mbps, I most often didn't see a huge difference in speed over my old Cox which ran about 35 Mbps. I'm assuming that's because the sites I access don't have overly fast service to begin. I don't really know.

I don't download large files, no streaming, no movies, no music, so my experience is maybe not typical.

Given my personal experience, if I had it to do over again, I would probably not switch off my Cox as I don't feel I got much advantage.

I'm presently at 300mbps down and 15-20mbps up, having been upgraded "for free" by time warner cable from what was previously about 80mbps down. What you describe matches my experience. Maybe that's why it was a free upgrade?

I was really hoping the improvement in speed would have felt like that scene where the Millennium Falcon first switches on hyperdrive....

[cheeryfool]

I'm presently at 300mbps down and 15-20mbps up, having been upgraded "for free" by time warner cable from what was previously about 80mbps down. What you describe matches my experience. Maybe that's why it was a free upgrade?

I was really hoping the improvement in speed would have felt like that scene where the Millennium Falcon first switches on hyperdrive....

I am now at 75 x 75 since the FiOS 'free' matched speed promotion. I commonly test at about 80 x 80 in off peak times, though the the download speed can drop 20% or so in peak times. Makes remote streaming from my Plex server hum along nicely.

[reidfo]

you guys are really making me anxious to get the gigabit service. Currently I have 20 down / 2 up from BrightHouse. They're not very customer friendly, and for the "privilege" of paying more for 90 Mbps down I will lose my static IP addresses. I know I won't get a /28 subnet with CenturyLink either, but for gig speeds I'm willing to ditch BrightHouse, especially since they've withheld all bandwidth upgrades for the last several years simply because I have business class service.