AT&T has announced that Apple’s home city of Cupertino will be the first west coast location to get its gigabit fiber Internet service, GigaPower, reports Re/code.
Cupertino is among several Bay Area cities that AT&T had previously said it was considering — a list that included San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, Campbell and Mountain View. Specific timing, availability and pricing for the Cupertino service will be announced later, AT&T said.
GigaPower is a 100 percent fiber optic network offering speeds of up to one gigabit. To put that speed into perspective, you could download an HD TV show in three seconds and download 25 music tracks in one second.
AT&T’s rivals in the gigabit Internet race include Google Fiber, based in nearby Mountain View. You can check availability of GigaPower on AT&T’s site.
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“That’s cute” – Chattanooga
And yet, ATT won’t even bother to lay an extra 1000 feet of cable to wire my neighborhood in a slightly remote corner of San Antonio. What use is 1000mbps when Netflix only needs 5 per stream? Fine, let’s say you NEED 10 Netflix movies streaming at the same time… What are you doing with the other 900mbps? I struggle to get 1.25, usually settle for .35, and would kill for a ping lower than 200. I just don’t get why we’re pouring research and money into gigabit internet when nobody has a legitimate use for that much speed anyway.
It’s all about cost. The cost of 1G optics and ONT for your side are sub-$100. To do lower speeds actually costs more in hardware cost. The fiber is cheap as well, the only expensive part is permits and labor to install, usually in that order.
Sadly, people in your situation will likely see OTA options become more viable before cable/fiber options.
It won’t be too long before carriers can offer compelling OTA home internet packages for relatively cheap.
How did Cupertino win a race?
That’s like winning a contest to LET PEOPLE BUY a McRoberts sandwich.
How will this mitigate traffic clusterf**ks caused by the new Apple campus?
ATT and IBM are willing to help Apple connect with business. Is Apple open to their help. Will it accept an open and heterogeneous business environment? Time will tell.