Gigabit Squared broke onto the scene on Wednesday, announcing it would spend $200 million to bring gigabit broadband to six college towns in conjunction with the Gig.U program. But the startup aims higher: It wants to change the economics of delivering fiber to the home everywhere.
Niche broadband networks built to cover areas big ISPs didn’t are doing well in the U.K according to a study out by PointTopic. Such news is welcome to niche players in the U.S. such as Sonic.Net, but is this the best way to deploy networks?
San Francisco is slated to get a gigabit fiber network in the coming five years, with the construction on the network to begin next year if Sonic.net gets the permits it needs to begin the build out. But those permits are far from certain.
Sonic.net, an independent ISP in San Francisco, plans to roll out a gigabit network to the city, putting the hub of today’s tech and web community on equal footing with Chattanooga, Tenn., and eventually both sides of Kansas City, where Google plans to lay fiber.
Minerva Network builds software for ISPs rolling out TV services over IP networks. Its new xTVFusion 5 platform is designed to enable live and on-demand IPTV services that can be deployed over relatively low-bandwidth IP networks.
The uptake of the iOS 5 update for Apple customers was fast and far-reaching. But what did that look like to the ISPs who provide the bandwidth for Apple customers to update? Here’s a chart that shows what Sonic.net saw.
Sonic.net, a Bay Area ISP, has a service package and ethos that could disrupt the broadband market. Today it’s brand of disruption is limited to California, but Dane Jasper, the company’s CEO, says that Sonic.net plans to expand outside California.
Getting to gigabit networks isn’t a cheap proposition, and once they are deployed, they generally cost more than the average person can afford. This creates a chicken-and-egg problem around building applications that could help network adoption. Why build if there’s no audience?
Sonic.net could soon be one of the first ISPs to introduce a TV service delivered over its broadband service. With the filing of a video franchise application with California’s Public Utilities Commission, Sonic is on its way to creating its own streaming video service.
Much of the discussion about ISPs centers around the nation’s largest players in the telecommunications and cable fields, but there are a number of smaller ISPs that can also share how competition is faring in the U.S. and what might happen if more flourished.
