1Gbps fiber for $70—in America? Yup.

[Mergie Master]

Dang! I'm sitting here getting only 10megs from CenturyLink for $40. Sux!

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 home phone service.

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 only 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.

[Redleg Camo]

I'm payin 15.00 month for 3megs. no contract. get's the job done.

[XHailGC]

We spend over 50 grand a year on Internet and connection fees.

[willyworm]

Sounds great, but wouldn't the lines in your neighborhood have to be fiber already for this to be an option to the customer? If you no fiber exists in your area for phone usage, then no fiber-to-the-home.

[turbo]

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 home phone service.

Sounds, to me, like they're running the lines to your home. No need for existing fiber lines. If they're running lines to the house, I feel sure they're supplying it to the wall as well.

[willyworm]

But that's the issue. How far are they talking about here? Stringing lenghty spans of fiber to single homes is neither practical nor economical.

[Bub]

In other news, Sonic.net files for Chapter 11 today... Ok, not really.

But, there's no way they can keep that up at those prices.

[dixiedeerslaya]

1gbps sounds cool and all, but the average internet user will never come close to needing anything over 10mbps......it sounds great, and will attract customers because it sounds like it will be this super fast internet where your pages will load before you think about clicking and blah blah blah. but truth is you will have alot of people paying 70 bucks a month and will only be using a "3mbps service"

its kind of like an all you can eat buffet for 9.99. sounds great, but your average person isnt going to come close to eating their 9.99 worth of food.

[millero]

you arent going to see this in sc for a long time. they are going to be in huge markets like LA, NY, ATL, Chicago, etc.

[millero]

1gbps sounds cool and all, but the average internet user will never come close to needing anything over 10mbps......it sounds great, and will attract customers because it sounds like it will be this super fast internet where your pages will load before you think about clicking and blah blah blah. but truth is you will have alot of people paying 70 bucks a month and will only be using a "3mbps service"

its kind of like an all you can eat buffet for 9.99. sounds great, but your average person isnt going to come close to eating their 9.99 worth of food.

"Nobody Will Ever Need More Than 640k RAM!" -- Bill Gates, 1981

never say never with technology.

[dixiedeerslaya]

90% of todays internet users are happy as long as they can watch streaming video and play on facebook........

they dont need, and will never use 1gig service.... they will be paying 70 dollars a month when they wouldnt notice a difference a 40 dollar a month 3-5 meg service.

[millero]

We spend over 50 grand a year on Internet and connection fees.

I think bub spends around 150 a year.

[firemedic]

In other news, Sonic.net files for Chapter 11 today... Ok, not really.

But, there's no way they can keep that up at those prices.

Why not, it's not like have to pay for other service's they have . if they just stick to one thing and one thing only and not get stupid they could do it I would think.

[millero]

90% of todays internet users are happy as long as they can watch streaming video and play on facebook........

they dont need, and will never use 1gig service.... they will be paying 70 dollars a month when they wouldnt notice a difference a 40 dollar a month 3-5 meg service.

its not for today. its for the years from now. if i had 1gbs down...i would be broke from buying hard drives.

[millero]

Why not, it's not like have to pay for other service's they have . if they just stick to one thing and one thing only and not get stupid they could do it I would think.

infrastructure costs are huge.

[dixiedeerslaya]

you arent going to see this in sc for a long time. they are going to be in huge markets like LA, NY, ATL, Chicago, etc.

maybe not at 70 dollars, but fiber to the home will be available in southeastern orangeburg county within 2.5 years....... rowesville, cattlecreek, bowman, duncan chapel, branchville,

its my job

[millero]

at what speed?

[dixiedeerslaya]

its not for today. its for the years from now. if i had 1gbs down...i would be broke from buying hard drives.

agreed.... hdtv comes to mind.

[dixiedeerslaya]

at what speed?

as much as you want to buy.

[Maggie Glover]

The local TELCOs LEC in our area, namely AT&T for most of SC control that last mile along with the cable and power companies. The way most pulci utility regs are written they must pay/partner with someone who has right of way rights to make that happen. AT&T (my current ISP) continues to remove features and throttle my service. Hard to beleive they would nto give home users burst speeds above SLAs when it was available. Of course they are the ones that took newsgroups away and threaten to charge by bandwidth. It will take a strong wireless carrier to slow that 800 lb gorilla down. MG