Select Google Fiber markets in the US will soon have a new, faster internet tier to choose. The company has announced that next month it will launch the 20 Gbps tier to "select customers" in a handful of markets. Light Reading's story on the announcement mentions Kansas City, North Carolina's Triangle region, Arizona, and Iowa. The new tier will cost $250 per month. Fiber-based providers have been quick to adopt mult-gig services in many areas. The "champion" is Ziply Fiber, which has made a 50 Gig tier available for $900 a month in some of its markets. 10 Gig service is becoming increasingly common across the nation. Meanwhile, Big Cable keeps working to deploy it's own multi-gig solution using DOCSIS 4.0 over their coaxial networks. Some limited deployments are expected by the middle of 2024. At this time there do not appear to be any cable solutions in the pipeline that would exceed 10 Gig.
0 Comments
The latest community in Utah to have access to fiber broadband from Utopia is Syracuse. The project was recently completed after two years of construction. Already, over 12,000 residences in the community have hooked up to Utopia, which is an open-access network. Residents pay a monthly connection fee of $30 per month to Utopia, then selects from among a list of ISP's for their internet service.
Of the $14.2 billion originally allocated for the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), less than $5 billion remains. And so far, there is not definitive plan to restock the fund and continue the program. A divided Congress makes it even harder for a legislative fix to emerge, even if it has bipartisan support. A proposal by President Joe Biden for stopgap funding of $6 Billiong to fund the ACP through the end of the year has not been acted on. A longer-term fix to the program will likely require a permanent funding stream. Various proposals have been discussed, including an expansion of the Universal Service Fund, but uncertainty remains. According to information at https://acpdashboard.com, a website provided by CBAN member Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR), funding will run out some time this summer based on current enrollment rates. The ILSR dashboard also shows interesting data points about the ACP, including which states are doing well and which ones are lagging. Overall, an estimated 42% of eligible households are enrolled.
|
Broadband Bytes NewsPresented by the Community Broadband Action Network and curated by Curtis Dean. Archives
April 2024
Categories
All
|