“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.
I hate to break it to you, but even with all of the legislative cruft cleared out of the way (and there is some to clear out), widespread high speed internet service is an expensive business to run. Where I live, I have at least three choices, and probably more if I bothered to actually do some research. In the early days of dial-up, I had tons of choices. So from where I am, the competative picture isn’t perfect, but it’s pretty good. Then again, I live in one of the freer states in the Union, too, and not NY or NJ. :p
I read an article last week that said we rank 16th in the world (even behind Slovenia) in broadband coverage. And that the U.S. definition of broadband is slower than the rest of the world.
For being “the most powerful nation on earth” we sure are in the dark ages when it comes to broadband and cellphones.
What a joke.
Emil – “Here in Sweden you get 100Mbit full duplex for about us$35 /month. 1Gbit is available but it sets you back 100 bucks/month”
12.5MB/sec for $35 U.S? and 125MB/sec. “sets you back” $100/month? You make me want to move to Sweden
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One question: Is Sweden’s BB infrastructure/pricing subsidized by the government? Those rates are cheap as hell! 🙁
I live in the southwest U.S. and get 3mbps DSL service for only $17.99 per month. 50mbps would be great, but not at 5-8x the price.