see you FTTH, for now

I've been using the FTTH (Fiber to the Home) internet speed since 2004 when I was in Tokyo.

I moved to San Francisco in 2006 and used Comcast for just a few weeks and found that my apartment building has a better option, webpass that provides a shared FTTH 100 Mbps up/down and have been a happy customer since then.

Next week I'm moving to a new place, which is actually just a few blocks from the current place, but the place is not the lucky one that has webpass installed. I contacted webpass sales, and while my new landlord agrees to install the service, webpass claims that I need an approval from Home Owners Association at the new place that the majority of the tenants/owners would use it as a primary service, which might be possible but would take time.

So for now I signed up for sonic.net fusion. It's an ADSL 2+ service with unlimited landline voice, priced 20Mbps for $50. Not terrible, but it's a huge step down from FTTH that I've been spoiled for 7 years. I really wish sonic.net moves on to the fiber development soon, or that HOA approves webpass or Verizon FiOS coming to SF.

Comments

[Tadashi]

"20Mbps for $50" sounds not bad. But I'm curious on the actual bandwidth of 20Mbps DSL. :)
BTW I was paying 50 bucs for Verizon DSL 768kbps in 2005. That was horrible. At that time they already had 50Mbps DSL for 4000 yen or something in Tokyo. haha!

[Brutuscat]

I would thought that in Tokio you can connect to a fiber anywhere :S. I am curious about what is the percentage of inhabitants that can have 100 Mbps up/down?

Don't get me wrong, Japan is way ahead of the world in terms of internet bandwidth, but now I see it is not what I heard...

Anyway, great blog ;)

[miyagawa]

Brutuscat: I think you misunderstand: I live in San Francisco, not in Tokyo and that's why I can't get fiber. If you're in Japan you can get it everywhere even in the country side of the country.