Comments on: Coming Soon: 1 GB Gbps Fiber Broadband. Just Not in the U.S.

By: Stéfan

Stéfan — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 07:09:58 +0000

Actually it’s Gbps (Gigabit per second) and not Gpbs, as currently written.

By: Carolyn Pritchard

Carolyn Pritchard — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 22:03:07 +0000

@PBP: Not at all -- thank for you for pointing it out. That's been corrected.

best, Carolyn

By: PBP

PBP — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 21:41:48 +0000

I hate to nitpick, but I will anyway. I expect GigaOM to be very accurate as most articles are extremely well written and informative. I have to say that the title of this article was very misleading. It refers to "GB" fiber broadband. This, in fact, isn't what is being offered. Instead, it's "Gb" fiber broadband.

The difference is that "GB" refers, typically, to storage. I'm sure that some day it won't, but not right now. 1 GB is equal to 1,024,000,000 bytes, though storage companies have moved away from the older binary (multiples of 2) to a decimal format. This means that storage companies are calling 1 GB equal to 1,000,000,000 bytes.

1 Gb, when referring to broadband, is decimal and means 1,000,000,000 bits. This is an 8-10 fold difference depending upon who you are talking to. This is why your downloads show, say "600 KB/s" when downloading in Windows environments, even though you bought a 6 Mb broadband "pipe". The two are equivalent.

Sorry to nitpick.

By: Holland takes a shot at Gigabit access while the US gets capped |

Holland takes a shot at Gigabit access while the US gets capped | — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 17:55:16 +0000

[...] Such speeds are going to become a reality in places around the planet soon enough, especially in places where fiber broadband is being deployed. Here in the U.S., meanwhile, market leaders such as AT&T and Comcast are proposing the implementation of caps, a move that will only serve to cause problems for innovators.(GigaOm) [...]

By: U.S. falling father behind without broadband strategy | Prodigeek

U.S. falling father behind without broadband strategy | Prodigeek — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 16:01:29 +0000

[...] fiber optic companies in Amsterdam are testing 1 gigabit connections, internet speeds fast enough for four simultaneous HD movies at [...]

By: Top News Roundup: 9/8/2008 - GigaOm, Herald Tribune, Sec

Top News Roundup: 9/8/2008 - GigaOm, Herald Tribune, Sec — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 06:16:05 +0000

[...] – GigaOm: High levels of demand for third generation devices such as Apple’s iPhone 3G – are clear indications of consumers wanting faster internet services. This article touches on the topic and points out that Europeans are doing something about it. In Amsterdam, Netherlands for instance, where the fiber optic network is already existent, they are thinking about upgrading to symmetrical speeds of connection of up to 1/GB. Britain is also evaluating the cost of connecting the country to a 1Gbit/s network, which according to a report published by “The Broadband Stakeholder Group” – the government’s advisory group on broadband, could cost as much as $52 billion. Certainly not an easy undertaking when considering the scale of the costs combined with issues that involve essentially the rewriting of the rules of how telecom service is defined, funded and delivered, and re-examining the goals for which it is delivered. But, in a fast technologically-advancing world – these are issues that have to be confronted sooner or later. [GigaOm] [...]

By: Raghu Kulkarni

Raghu Kulkarni — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 22:05:12 +0000

Om,

1GB bandwidth or anything close to is absolutely terrific for cloud storage providers. With our strategic focus on using existing open protocols such as NFS and CIFS to provide cloud storage (http://www.idrive.com/oss/), businesses will be seamlessly integrate cloud storage offerings from us with their LAN almost to the point where users can’t even tell where the storage is located!

Raghu Kulkarni Pro Softnet Corp

By: Vlad (Small Business Blog)

Vlad (Small Business Blog) — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 18:38:11 +0000

You don’t happen to know anyone from that place who want to hire me? :)

By: Tessa

Tessa — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 18:22:56 +0000

NO! The carriers won’t build out fiber everywhere. They will build out to the same people who have faster speeds now. Network quality will be like cars, education, vacation and housing quality. The difference between “the haves” and “have nots” will get bigger, not smaller in a nonlinear way. If you live in a area with lots of buried plant you are in deep trouble. If you are rural, ex-suburban or even in some cases suburban you are in deep trouble…