High Speed Access

When we moved to Seattle I assumed it would have a ton of high speed internet options. Heck, it is on the world's tech. hubs, right? There was a gigabit initiative, but mayor Ed Murray killed the deal.

I've ended up going with Comcast for high speed access. CenturyLink was an option, but when I put my address in their web site said I could only get 7Mbps down. Unacceptable!

Comcast ran a line to my house a few days ago. They were on time and the installers were great guys! When they left I did what any good nerd would do and went to speedtest.net. 53Mbps down and 10Mbps up. The Comcast network is notorious for slowing down when a lot of their customers hop on. We'll see how the speeds hold up.

Comcast charges $75 a month (after introductory offer) for this access. It is too bad there isn't more competition out there. I've never experience terrible customer service with Comcast, but it is troubling that they are so big. If the Time Warner deal goes through, they'll control about 30% of all American internet and TV subscriptions. The cost of rolling out new infrastructure makes it nearly impossible for a private company to enter a new market, unless they have assistance from the government. The article above illustrates how difficult a private/public partnership can be. Right now this country is relying on companies like Google to role out high speed access. It is going to be a long time before the average person can get gigabit to their homes, at a reasonable price.

Right now I am content with my connection. I hope in the future, though, customers will have more choices. I also hope this country understands how important high speed access is for educational institutes and rural areas. In my opinion the government needs to make a master plan to have high speed access reach every corner of our country.