MacBH928
macrumors G3
A quick look up says fiber optic wire can carry 50 Gbps (50,000 Mbps) but for some reason ISPs provide it at 300-500Mbps (100x slower)
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10 Gbps home internet
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A quick look up says fiber optic wire can carry 50 Gbps (50,000 Mbps) but for some reason ISPs provide it at 300-500Mbps (100x slower)
Howard2k
macrumors 604
Because those are two different applications - cellular and home Internet. Sure, it's the same network core in the backbone, but 5G is more of an edge infrastructure that has much less density. And as I said, you're not streaming 8TB from Netflix. You're streaming the overwhelming majority of that directly from your local ISP in your home city due to the content delivery network architecture. Ask AI "Tell me about the Netflix CDN architecture and capacity in [[my home town and state]]"
I think you're also confusing price and cost. $55 isn't what 300Mb/s costs AT&T, it's what you pay AT&T. $15 isn't what it costs Netflix, it's what you pay them.
Also 4K doesn't require 25Mb/s. 25Mb/s is the recommended minimum in order to provide some buffer. I don't know many households who are doing three simulataneous 4K streams. In fact I don't think I know any. But if I knew someone who wanted to do that, then sure, 100Mb/s is a better choice than 50Mb/s.
5G is effectively an "application" on top of the "real" network backbones. It's still IP, but the design goals are not the same, and the capacity constraints are materially different. 5G is not designed to run at 100% utilization.
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Howard2k
macrumors 604
No, that's not true. It depends how the what kind of fibre it is and how the fibre is "lit". Most homes that have fibre have GPON (2.5Gb/s in some configurations) and more rarely XPON (10Gb/s and upwards). But the larger carriers are today using multiple 1.2Tb/s links for their backbones, or with WDM some are doing 32Tb/s or even 64Tb/s.
But GPON and XPON are explicitly built for shared capacity via multiplexing. They assume that with a 10Gb/s link, for example, they can have 30 (or 20, or 80) x 1Gb/s customers, since most customers links sit largely idle - this is a common practice called "oversubscription".
Remember when Google Fiber was first released. It basically forced almost every other ISP to sooner or later start using it. Did not happen overnight though but that would be impossible.
MacCheetah3
macrumors 68040
I can believe that 100%. My elderly parental units have complained about that very thing and similar, whether related to the Internet, their precious (cable) TV, etc.
IvyKing
macrumors 6502a
I got that tidbit from someone who worked for PacBell at that time, and he was in a position to know about these issues.
Donfor39
macrumors 68000
Arctic Moose
macrumors 68000
The Free Market Lie: Why Switzerland Has 25 Gbit Internet and America Doesn't
The Free Market Lie: Why Switzerland Has 25 Gbit Internet and America Doesn't
stefan.schueller.net
IvyKing
macrumors 6502a
FWIW, my experience with FTTH in the US is that bandwidth is not shared as mentioned in the article. This is more common with cable internet service as bandwidth with the fiber back-haul is typically shared within an neighborhood.The Free Market Lie: Why Switzerland Has 25 Gbit Internet and America Doesn't
The Free Market Lie: Why Switzerland Has 25 Gbit Internet and America Doesn't
Howard2k
macrumors 604
In the US if it's FTTH it's' likely GPON or XGS-PON (or similar). These are both multiplexed and shared networks. Not DOCSIS level sharing though, but still shared. 😀
IvyKing
macrumors 6502a
Ting claims that their fiber connections go straight to their equivalent of a CO. The connection from the "CO" to the rest of the internet is shared, but that's true with just about any internet service. My connection was upgraded from 1G to 2G a year and a half ago, which implies the termination was switched at the CO end.
Howard2k
macrumors 604
Yeah, it's PON - GPON or XGS-PON or similar. It's still shared and multiplexed, but just not as severely as fibre.
And the fact that you don't notice shows that they're likely managing it well. 😀
That "equivalent of a CO" is likely their multiplexor in a pedestal.
The Internet itself is of course a shared network, which for the most part is treated by most of the carriers as "lower grade" than their other traffic. So "shared" but no big deal.
Then Ting is misleading you. Your connection is shared well before the CO, and caps out a 10Gbps shared via X4 then to a X8 splitter at the FDH, before it hits a FWLT (or equivalent, if they're not using Nokia) card inside an OLT, which sits inside the wire center or CO.
splifingate
Contributor
[edit: grammar]
I'm connected at 1G/1G GPON from The A&T, and they do a x64 multiplex local split, with a x8 junction at street-level. My access to the legbone competes with seven other houses out front, and eight other junctions up (and down) the street.
I always get 930+ Gbps up/down, though my latency is sometimes impacted by neighbor usage (just like theirs may be when I'm uploading 100GB of data to my remote host).
Right now, interweb access 'feels' a little slow; probably because "FIFA".
SalisburySam
macrumors 65816
Datapoint: here in our small community of 36,000 people, we have Hotwire Communications “Fision” product with fiber to my home. I have subscribed to 300Mbps up and down for a decade now and it meets my needs and then some.
However, they do offer, today, 1.0Gbps for $75/month, 2.5Gbps for $90/month, and 5Gbps for $500/month, all with a $100 install fee. That’s today, using the fiber already run to my home, only requiring a phone call request to make happen. Totally unnecessary for me but definitely available. I expect 10Gbps availability is potentially soon but far exceeding my cost desire and needs. It would seem “more” is never enough.
However, they do offer, today, 1.0Gbps for $75/month, 2.5Gbps for $90/month, and 5Gbps for $500/month, all with a $100 install fee. That’s today, using the fiber already run to my home, only requiring a phone call request to make happen. Totally unnecessary for me but definitely available. I expect 10Gbps availability is potentially soon but far exceeding my cost desire and needs. It would seem “more” is never enough.
That install fee is crazy! Like the activation fee on cell phones when you do all the work, yourself, online or on their app, but $100 is really pushing the limits.
SalisburySam
macrumors 65816
Yeah, probably. But it does entail a physical site visit, possibly a new network interconnect at the home, a physical and electronic check of the fiber at the house terminal, so mildly gross and not overwhelmingly so.
Cell phone activations are just ridiculous…no legitimate vendor work at all but escalating fees for it. Just a tariffed extra way to add profit. And this adds to the many reasons we don’t change our phones all that oftern.
IvyKing
macrumors 6502a
FWIW, the neighborhood pedestals that Ting uses do not appear to have any significant amount of cooling capability which makes me think they are passive connections.
MacBH928
macrumors G3
Actually, its more of required. App sizes are getting ridiculous , 100GB videogames, 50GB 4k movies, 40GB OS installations, not only that but they are constantly being pushed for updates on all devices all the time. I come from a time when 256Kbps seemed like the luxury life but app demands exponentially grew and now everything is connected via fiber, even phone lines! Copper is out!
I really have a hard time believing that any one who wants to connect fiber they need to send 2 engineers to site to make it. The number of homes and offices in USA is humongous so much so it does not seem to be logistically possible.
wait, you have to pay a fee if you change your phone device?
SalisburySam
macrumors 65816
I agree. My beginning was when updates to anything were only done by physical storage medium distribution, mostly on 5¼” floppy disks, followed by 3.5” encased floppy disks. No network involvement (300 baud dial-up anyone?). At work, the computers used 8” floppy disks with microcode for updates.
I’ve not seen 2 techs/engineers at a hookup or even a repair, ever. Just one person. I have seen 2 when fiber has to be run from the street to the house but one of those is usually the lift driver.
$36 plus 7% tax…every time a device change is made. Previously $30+ but raised to $36 a couple of years ago. That’s AT&T, don’t know about the other major carriers but likely similar.