Google Fiber: 151Mbps down / 92Mbps up
<i>The obvious question now is, if Google can do this, why aren’t network operators banging down the company’s door to get involved and roll this out everywhere. Yes, there’s big investment involved, but these companies are kidding themselves if they think waiting and dealing with a lack of bandwidth in the future is going to work for them. Whoever jumps first and starts investing in these fiber-to-the-home initiatives is going to be rewarded with a lot of new customers in years to come.</i><p>They don't need Google to do it. FTTH/G-PON solutions are available to any ISP in the country and have been for several years. They haven't done it yet (besides Verizon FIOS who provisions at much lower speeds) because the demand really isn't there yet. Most customers do not pay more for faster speeds even when they are available. You've got a lot more customers who downgrade to <i>slower</i> speeds to save money than customers who pay more for faster speeds. More competition would certainly help but until you can convince normal people they actually need faster Internet connections it's not much of a competitive advantage. (as long as you can match or slightly exceed your competitors)<p>Once you hit about 20Mbit/5Mbit faster speeds are almost completely unnoticeable by most people who are just doing some normal browsing, IP video, e-mail, FaceBook, etc. That's what most people are using their Internet connections for these days. We really need a killer app that pushes the limits of most Internet connections and you'll see more companies betting on (expensive) upgrades to deliver those speeds. I don't see much on the horizon. You can already do pretty decent 1080P video at 10-20Mbit/sec. What type of apps are going to push the demand?