“Verizon Communications Inc. on Tuesday raised the top download speed for its fiber-based Internet service in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, the areas where it competes with Cablevision Systems Corp. for broadband customers,” The Associated Press reports.
“New York customers of Verizon’s FiOS paying $89.95 a month can now get download speeds of 50 megabits per second, up from 30 mbps,” AP reports. “In New Jersey and Connecticut, the service costs $139.95 per month.” [According to a Verizon spokesperson, consumer demand, competition and technological factors are behind the price differences.]
AP reports, “The new speed appears to be the fastest offering from a major U.S. Internet service provider. At 50 mbps, users of Apple Computer Inc.’s iTunes Music Store could download a standard-length song in about a second.”
More info here.
The faster broadband gets, the more services such as Apple’s iTunes Store can conceivably offer.
This is what will decide the fate of online movie downloads-speed.
I Hate Cablevision! They are the absolute WORST company ever! I get better service and support from Microsoft- ok, maybe I’m exaggerating….
that’s crazy.
I am getting 768 kbps!!!!!
Remember dial-up??? Things have changed in not much time.
The world is going to end soon and become all moments in one moment.
What about Wimax. That is supposed to be 75-100 mbps. That certainly would do the trick.
Hmmmph! I’m still getting 1.5mps on DSL.
I live in CT and would love these download speeds, but not at those prices!. My comcast service is $45 per month, and i hate paying for that.
Jeez, but still $89.95 – $139.95 a month for broadband? I thought Cox Cable was expensive… The only thing this deal has going for it is its portability, although I don’t know the extend of its coverage…
I just looked at verizon fios website. their smallest package is up to 5mbps for 34.95 per month. that is the same as comcast and $10 cheaper. I’m going to look into it
Before you pee your pants.. 1 gig internet has been available in Hong Kong for about a year.
Do the math.
$ for ordinary speed, bigger $$$ for HIGH speed
You don’t want to pay for higher speeds? Well, don’t. Those prices are for CRAZY FAST.
Continue to pay your lesser $ for lesser speeds.
“Before you pee your pants.. 1 gig internet has been available in Hong Kong for about a year.”
Well aren’t you the supreme stud for living in such a place. I, for one, am impressed! Good of you to point it out in your schoolyard “nanny nanny boo boo” manner.
Relax Oops!
You came down hard on kyotosugar for simply making a statement.
I, for one, was interested to hear what he had to say!
You’re the one with the sucky attitude — chill man!
Sadly, American lags behind MANY countries as far as broadband speed and availability.
Haha! Well…
That said, the price for 1 gb in Hong Kong is at the high end of Verizon’s range. It’s not available everywhere within HK SAR. However, 100 mb is widespread and is priced around 40ish per month.
Another note, cable TV is done different in HK. They call it IP Cable, and is run off a small box that runs inside your network and the TV programming is streamed across the internet. It’s quite reliable. Even if you’re banging your connection hard with your P2P or whatever bandwidth hogs you might be running, the TV programming will not skip or bog down. The interactive features such as on demand exceed anything I’ve seen in the States as well.
I doubt this will arrive States side very soon, since the US telcom market is far less competitive giving the businesses less incentive to invest in and adopt modern technologies.
Comcast cable, here. 4-6 mb/s. I’ll get 700-900 kb/s on a good website.
The US is fully competitive. It’s a market economy and is efficient.
But the vast distances to cover even regional markets make it less worthwhile to roll out technology as such a fast clip.
That’s 6.25MB per second. I’m going to have to check availability in my area. I doubt it will be an option for me yet. When it is, I’m all over it.
Aaargh..and I’m still on dial-up!!! (Not by choice!)
We still throw boomerangs in Australia, some are quite fast as well, but we have to keep the messages short!
Silly tarts!
Here in Sweden you get 100Mbit full duplex for about us$35 /month. 1Gbit is available but it sets you back 100 bucks/month :/
Not that Sweden is of any interest to Apple though!
Damn, that’s a lot faster than the 300 baud acoustic modem sitting here on my desk!
Hmpf. In the UK we can only get about 8Mb at home-£18 a month
In the UK, I’m getting 22Mb for £29.99 per month. Sky satellite TV (Ruport Murdoch-owned) this week announced broadband for Sky customers. The high end package was 16Mb at £10 per month with no download limit. The low end was 2Mb with a 2Gb per month download limit for free.
If you live in a UK city or large town, companies other than the former monopoly holder, British Telecom are rolling out services that far exceed 8Mb for less money than British Telecom is charging for their 8Mb service. They concentrate on larger metropolitan areas first because they are more profitable.
Here in Austria, we still yodel across the alps and it cost nothing. Who needs iTunes when we can listen to alpen horns and cowbells from the valley.
“The US is fully competitive. It’s a market economy and is efficient.”
Hardly. Most U.S. customers only have two or fewer choices for broadband, due to the (mostly still intact) legacy of franchise monopolies for television and telephone service. As a result, the U.S. broadband market is very uncompetitive, with high prices and relatively slow service. As a case in point, look at Verizon’s statement above:
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“New York customers of Verizon’s FiOS paying $89.95 a month can now get download speeds of 50 megabits per second, up from 30 mbps,” AP reports. “In New Jersey and Connecticut, the service costs $139.95 per month.” [According to a Verizon spokesperson, consumer demand, competition and technological factors are behind the price differences.]
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They have more competition in Manhattan than they do in New Jersey or Connecticut, so they are sticking it to the suburban customers, who only have Verizon and Comcast, or sometimes Verizon and Cablevision as their options.