Users Finally Start Getting Comcast's Two Gigabit Service

It might sound cool to have a two Gigabit Internet. But I wonder what anyone would really need it for?
 
Forget about the price. I don't even understand any practical application of the 2 Gb Internet at home at all. Well, I can see it being used for companies with hundreds of computers, where you need a high bandwidth pipe so it could be shared by many users. But how would you use it at home?

First of all, how would you even connect to it? All home network routers and Ethernet adapters in our computers are still limited to 1Gb. You would need to upgrade all your network devices to NBASE-T or something, which is not widely available yet.

And even if you do upgrade all your equipment to NBASE-T, what can you practically use this speed for? Even for the most demanding 4K video streaming you would only need a small fraction of that speed. There are probably very few websites (if any at all) that can take advantage of such high speed.
 
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It's bragging rights. They're trying to out-do Google's gigabit to the home. Never mind that no one can support more than a gigabit...
 
Forget about the price. I don't even understand any practical application of the 2 Gb Internet at home at all. Well, I can see it being used for companies with hundreds of computers, where you need a high bandwidth pipe so it could be shared by many users. But how would you use it at home?

First of all, how would you even connect to it? All home network routers and Ethernet adapters in our computers are still limited to 1Gb. You would need to upgrade all your network devices to NBASE-T or something, which is not widely available yet.

And even if you do upgrade all your equipment to NBASE-T, what can you practically use this speed for? Even for the most demanding 4K video streaming you would only need a small fraction of that speed. There are probably very few websites (if any at all) that can take advantage of such high speed.

Then you go on their site and they say residential only.

I need it more in my call center running 40+ computers than I do in my house
 
Forget about the price. I don't even understand any practical application of the 2 Gb Internet at home at all. Well, I can see it being used for companies with hundreds of computers, where you need a high bandwidth pipe so it could be shared by many users. But how would you use it at home?

First of all, how would you even connect to it? All home network routers and Ethernet adapters in our computers are still limited to 1Gb. You would need to upgrade all your network devices to NBASE-T or something, which is not widely available yet.

And even if you do upgrade all your equipment to NBASE-T, what can you practically use this speed for? Even for the most demanding 4K video streaming you would only need a small fraction of that speed. There are probably very few websites (if any at all) that can take advantage of such high speed.

Its just another way to separate fools from their money.

You would never use even a small fraction at home. I laugh when people tell me they have 150 or 200Mb at home.
I ask them what their utilization percentage, and they look like deer in headlights. Simple to setup PRTG or something else and SNMP poll your router, to see how much you are actually not using.
I guess they think the more capacity they have, the faster their surfing will be, simply not true if your not maxing out. And with few computers and simple household use, they are not maxing out.

I run 700+ computers and about 10 servers on a burstable 50Mb Ethernet over Fiber Internet circuit. Planning on upgrading to 100 Mb, not in a hurry because I don't max out very often at 50Mb.
These circuits aren't cheap but I have 4 public class C's, BGP AS # assigned to it, and an SLA.
Being residential I doubt you will get any of those features on the 2 Gb circuit in this post, and as far as an SLA, they fix it when they get around to it if it breaks. "We will be there from 8AM to 8PM next Friday" HA, forget it.
 
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It's amazing the overall negative attitude people have at Comcast's 2 Gb service, but people are begging for Verizon to expand their Fios footprint. $275 for 500 Mb symmetrical. Or worse yet government run municipal broadband, where the monthly rates are lower, but you get the pleasure of paying for it in your taxes.
 
It's amazing the overall negative attitude people have at Comcast's 2 Gb service, but people are begging for Verizon to expand their Fios footprint. $275 for 500 Mb symmetrical. Or worse yet government run municipal broadband, where the monthly rates are lower, but you get the pleasure of paying for it in your taxes.

Its for suckers, that's why. Suckers that have no idea what they are buying or even why they are buying it.
Its their money and they can buy whatever they want, this is America after all.
Why pay for 2Gb when you will only use 100Mb ever? And most people may only peak at that level a few times a month. Agreed in the future 4K may warrant it , but not now. Or you have a huge rack of servers running torrents 24/7.

2Gbps is no faster to the user than let say 100Mbps service if you only ever peak at 50Mbps.

I think the people that realize its for suckers are Network Engineers or at least in IT, or just plain know whats going on.
 
It's not that. It's the fact that Comcast is one of the most crapped on companies in the country, when they are by far one of the most INNOVATIVE! They cannot do anything right in the eyes of the dumb consumer, but yet undeserved praise is constantly received by lesser companies ie Verizon and AT&T.

Comcast is pure awesome.
 
Yeah Verizon sucks and I guess they have to match and exceed Google's 1Gb hype, they are in business to make money.
 
Yes, Verizon does suck.

If I had the choice between 2 Gb at $300 or $275 for 500 Mb, and I could justify the cost, it is pretty obvious who offers the better value. As with all things tech, price will come down. I was once paying $80 for 6 Mb cable. Now I get 60 Mb for less. I personally would have no problem paying up to $400 for 1 or 2 Gb internet service, bundled with home phone service and digital TV service with all premium movie and sports services with a pair of whole house DVRs..
 
I regularly saturate my 60Mbps internet connection downloading games from Steam, PSN, and Xbox Live. When you are trying to download a 50GB installation file the difference between 60Mbps and 1Gbps can be the difference between minutes and hours of waiting.

I wouldn't spring for 2Gbps since none of my equipment supports that but if my township's proposed 1Gbps plan for less than $100 goes through I will absolutely switch from Charter. I am not saying that everyone needs gigabit internet but it's not like their aren't people who could take advantage of it on a regular basis.
 
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I regularly saturate my 60Mbps internet connection downloading games from Steam, PSN, and Xbox Live. When you are trying to download a 50GB installation file the difference between 60Mbps and 1Gbps can be the difference between minutes and hours of waiting.

How are you measuring your throughput? What are the units of output? Are you sure you sure you are not just saturating the upstream provider? Lots of content providers will limit your throughput. Are you actually getting the full 60MBps?

Besides the practicality of actually utilizing all 2Gbps for the home user, next are the equipment costs. Once you exceed 1Gbps the next standard interface speed is 10Gbps.
10Gbps firewalls and switches are outrageously expensive. I have a quote on my desk right now for 2 Cisco 10GB-LR-SPFs for $12,000! SRs are cheaper but, that's just the SFP modules to connect the fiber to the 10 Gb switch. Just really curious to see how they will provide quality equipment at a decent price.
 
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How are you measuring your throughput? What are the units of output? Are you sure you sure you are not just saturating the upstream provider? Lots of content providers will limit your throughput. Are you actually getting the full 60MBps?


Services like Steam show your current download speed. Mine regularly caps at 7.9MB which is just over 60Mbps. I live alone so there is no one watching Netflix or doing other things on the internet while I'm downloading games unless it's me. I do that from time to time but I'm not usually staring at my Steam download speed when I do. These are sustained downloads over a couple hours in some cases.

Now you are right in the case of Playstation Network. I almost never see my PS4 even hit my full network speed, let alone maintain it. Steam and Xbox Live are both capable of delivering downloads to me that can max out my internet bandwidth though. I'm sure the same is true for many companies who serve up large download filles on a regular basis.
 
It's not that. It's the fact that Comcast is one of the most crapped on companies in the country, when they are by far one of the most INNOVATIVE! They cannot do anything right in the eyes of the dumb consumer, but yet undeserved praise is constantly received by lesser companies ie Verizon and AT&T.

Comcast is pure awesome.

Really? I'd venture to say most people that don't like Comcast aren't big fans of AT&T or Verizon either. In fact, I think most people are very frustrated and unhappy that they're limited, in many areas of the country, to only Comcast and AT&T, or Comcast and Verizon, etc for internet, and they have no real competition or options other than these awful companies that all seem to provide bad service for inflated prices. I rarely see anyone who hates Comcast but thinks AT&T is great. And I bet the only people that like Verizon are the ones that have FiOS. I'd like them too if they'd wire my house with fiber optics!
 
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