As Westminster begins serving customers with its new FTTH network and partner Ting, we were curious how many communities are there where a residential subscriber can obtain affordable gigabit access? We estimate the number of networks, large or small, where a majority of residents in a community can obtain gigabit service for $100 or less to be 12. Westminster will be there in a few years.
Municipal citywide, sub $100 gigabit providers:
- Leverett, Massachusetts
- North Kansas City, Missouri
- Chattanooga, Tennessee
- Tullahoma, Tennessee
- Sandy, Oregon
- UTOPIA Cities, Utah
Cooperatives:
- Paul Bunyan Communications, Minnesota
- Farmer’s Telecom, Alabama
- Co-Mo Connect, Missouri
Private Companies:
- Google – Kansas City, Provo
- MetroNet – Crawfordsville, Indiana (formerly a muni)
- Burlington, Vermont – (currently privately owned, formerly a muni with future in limbo)
We included municipal networks, cooperatives, and privately owned companies. When considering networks that cover multiple jurisdictions in a single area, we counted it as one (thus Google counts as 1 in KC, Chattanooga is 1 in TN). And we were looking for gigabit networks – not just gigabit download. While we prefer to see symmetrical connections, we accepted 500 Mbps up for our threshold.
We could not identify any cities served by AT&T, CenturyLink, Verizon, Comcast, Cox, or any other similar company where the majority of the community has access to a gig. Those providers tend to cherry pick and even then, their prices are over $100 typically. For example, CenturyLink advertises a gig at $80 but then requires other services and hidden fees that make the monthly bill closer to $150.
We found affordable residential gigabit service from networks in urban, suburban, or rural communities from 12 networks (some of which cover multiple communities). Trying to determine how much of the community has access to a service is challenging, so please contact us with any corrections. In a few years, munis like Longmont and private companies like Ting will join the list.
While the number of providers are few, many of them do serve multiple communities. The coops, including Farmers Telecommunications Cooperative in Alabama and Missouri’s Co-Mo Cooperative, provide the service to a long list of smaller communities within their service areas. There is also the open access network UTOPIA, with at least 7 providers that offer gigabit FTTH below our price point in nine communities currently served by the network (to various degrees, some cities have little coverage whereas others are almost entirely built out).
Prices range from $0 to $99.95 per month with the highest concentration at $70 or higher. In North Kansas City, residents pay $300 for installation and receive gigabit Internet access for $0 per month for the next 10 years. This incredible offer is available due to the presence of LiNKCity, a network deployed by the city and now managed and operated by a private partner.
AT&T has launched its $70 GigaPower in parts of 12 different metro areas, although the price requires users to submit to a special web based advertising program. Even when these big firms finally invest in high capacity connections, they find new ways to exploit their subscribers – a reminder that who deploys a technology can be as important as what that technology is.
Now that the gig barrier has been blasted away (primarily by municipal networks and smaller ISPs) we expect to see more networks and providers offering affordable gig service to residents.
Gigabit Cat photo courtesy of Michael Himbeault and shared through a Creative Commons license.
This article is apart of MuniNetworks. The original piece can be found here
