1GB internet connection now available in Japan

[kamuixtv]

Storage device like Blu-Ray wil be essential with this new type of internet connection.

Fibre internet in Japan gets 10 times faster.
Source: http://it.nikkei.co.jp/it/news/ftth.cfm?i=2004093010060ul
Internet providers will start serving home owners fibre internet connections 10 times faster than the speeds currently available. It will enable their customers to connect to the internet at over 30 Mbits per second even while sharing one cable with other subscribers, and enjoy broadband content like HDTV broadcasting smoothly.

Softbank is going to enter the fibre internet market from October 2004, and be the first to offer the service. Other ISPs, NTT and KDDI also have plans to follow. This new offering might encourage more people to switch from ADSL to fibre internet.

A major advantage of current Fibre offerings is its 100 Mbits per second connection speed, but the majority of subscribers share one cable to reduce subscription fees. This has the side effect of making the service slower, for example, the current fibre service by NTT could share one cable with a maximum of 32 subscribers, this could push the speed down to 3 Mbits per second.

For this latest Service, ISPs are introducing new communications hardware. This enables them to increase the connecitons to 1 Gbit per second and maintain more than 30 Mbit if it is shared by the maximum 32 subscribers.

Softbank intends to achieve a monthly charge in the upper 6000 yen range when all costs are included. The company will rent fibre cables that connect individual homes to a central exchange from NTT.

NTT also plans to start offering the same service this year at the earliest. While KDDI, which has specialized only in condominium customers thus far, shall also enter the home owners market. This will increase competition in the fibre internet connection market.

The number of fibre internet contracts in Japan has been increasing steadily. There were 1.6 million users at the end of August 2004, though this is only one eighth of ADSL contracts (12.55 million). Once the advantages of fibre internet becomes clearer for users such as the stable connection and the faster speed than ADSL, it is expected that the market will grow much faster.

Broadband offerings in Japan

SERVICE PRICE DESCRIPTION NOTES
Shared fibre (new) upper 6000 yen range 1 Gbit shared by upto 32 users
Shared fibre (current) 6000 yen - 7000 yen 100 Mbit shared by max. 32 users
Dedicated fibre 5000 yen - 10,000 yen 100 Mbit single subscriber
ADSL 4000 yen 50 Mbit Uploadload speed significantly slower
Speed affected by distance from exchange

Internet connections will hit 10Gbit by 2010 in Japan
Source: http://www.nikkei.co.jp/news/keizai/200408...0I23082004.html
The Japanese government (the Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Post and Telecommunication) are going to start a development plan next year that will increase the speed of the internet in Japan to 100 times faster than the current 100MB fibre internet, with partner companies it is aiming for completion by 2010. It plans to develop a unique technology, expecting to increase competitiveness in the network equipments market, which is currently dominated by the American IT company, Cisco Systems. The Ministry is going to make a budget request of 10 billion yen for the project over the next five years.

Current router technology for fiber optic networks must covert the optical (light) signals to electrical signals and back again to process them, this causes a delay in processing and as such a slowing down of internet communications. The group plans to develop technology that does not requite the conversion steps and so make even faster broadband internet services practical. If successful, the internet connection speed available could become more than 10G bits/sec (10 billion bits), which is 100 times faster than the current fastest speed of 100 Mbit on current fiber internet connections. This will take only about 35 seconds to send a 2 hours long video, which takes around 57 minutes with the current technology. The ministry has asked for support from NTT and Fujitsu and will form an organization composed of government and private companies to start the project.

[Stingray]

I think I'll move to Japan...

[BJ_M]

nice

[hexxisoft]

sweet.

[Ironballs]

Beautiful

[skebenin]

Exchange rate: ~110 YEN:1 USD

1 GBit for ~$55 (though it isn't clear if that's per user or per line). I'm envious. Why is the US so far behind on broadband? My local telecom wants that much for a crappy 256 KBit DSL connection, and cable is only a little better.

[gcutler]

Although it seems that with my 1Mbit connection, most web sites I visit I still sit there waiting for activity at times. Unless both sides of the connection are fast enough, it might be a little less than worthwhile. For example what is the theorhetical max speed you could download a file from here?

[alsyed]

"Why is the US so far behind on broadband? My local telecom wants that much for a crappy 256 KBit DSL connection, and cable is only a little better."


Here in New Zealand, we are only just catching up to the bottom of NZ standards. Though, i'm getting 256/128 unlimited adsl for about $35US

[shelbyGT]

the only thing i download are webpages... how would i benefit from that?

[JohnnyCNote]

1 GBit for ~$55 (though it isn't clear if that's per user or per line). I'm envious. Why is the US so far behind on broadband? My local telecom wants that much for a crappy 256 KBit DSL connection, and cable is only a little better.

One possible reason is that the US is a lot larger....

[gcutler]

the only thing i download are webpages... how would i benefit from that?

Well every web page has some graphics, the web pages that come up in less than a second would probably not benefit, but if something takes 5 seconds it could take 1 second if you had faster connection (assuming that the web site is capable of handling that speed, if the bottleneck is on the other side, no help what so ever...)

[JohnnyCNote]

the only thing i download are webpages... how would i benefit from that?

Maybe at the greater speeds you'd find lots of other things to download. If not, then don't get it. There's plenty of others who would like to have it....

[ViRaL1]

No one will ever need more than 64k of bandwidth.

[kamuixtv]

"Why is the US so far behind on broadband? My local telecom wants that much for a crappy 256 KBit DSL connection, and cable is only a little better."

Isn't Alcatel or Cisco have their own version of next generation broadband? Or the US Govt, RIAA or MPAA are keep on eyeing on this one.

[shelbyGT]

although streaming video would kickass at that speed, I would assume.

[ROBERT BLACK]

1 GBit for ~$55 (though it isn't clear if that's per user or per line). I'm envious. Why is the US so far behind on broadband? My local telecom wants that much for a crappy 256 KBit DSL connection, and cable is only a little better.


One possible reason is that the US is a lot larger....

So is Canada.


We get 3 mbits for $40.00 a month Canadian. The introductory rate for 3 months is usually $24.95.

[JohnnyCNote]

That's less than what we pay in Florida, 3MBps for around $50 US...

[ROBERT BLACK]

If you don't want a cap on the monthly bandwidth it's $44.95 Can.But introductory is still $24.95 for many ISPs. Bandwidth cap or not. The 5 mbit connection is around or close to $60.00 Can This not in every Canadian province. But right now a few of those ISPs better be working on that 30mbit connection.

[DereX888]

To get 5Mbit on Rogers you just need different DOCSIS modem (i.e. Motorola Surfboard). You can buy it for ~$90 CAD, then just call them and report that you are going to use your own modem, give them the specs etc and voila: 5Mbps for the same price as 3Mbps
BTW - anyone wants my old Terayon TCM-110? email me

[ROBERT BLACK]

To get 5Mbit on Rogers you just need different DOCSIS modem (i.e. Motorola Surfboard). You can buy it for ~$90 CAD, then just call them and report that you are going to use your own modem, give them the specs etc and voila: 5Mbps for the same price as 3Mbps
BTW - anyone wants my old Terayon TCM-110? email me

To DereX888:


Is it possible to buy a DOCSIS modem and do this with DSL? Through Bell Sympatico or AOL high speed? Thanks.

[JohnnyCNote]

I think the DOCSIS protocol is only for cable modems....

[MikieV]

Storage device like Blu-Ray wil be essential with this new type of internet connection.

A major advantage of current Fibre offerings is its 100 Mbits per second connection speed, but the majority of subscribers share one cable to reduce subscription fees..

While KDDI, which has specialized only in condominium customers thus far, shall also enter the home owners market. This will increase competition in the fibre internet connection market.

1. Nice plug for Blu-ray! (I know, it says "like" Blu-ray).

2. I'm not clear on what they mean by "sharing". Here in the US, I am on a cable-modem (Comcast) - so in effect I am sharing the bandwidth with my neighbors. Is that all they mean, or are several people getting together - on their own - and splitting the feed?

3. Condos & apartments would seem to be a natural for people setting-up a shared feed. How would non-adjacent neigbors in houses set this up?

4. In the US - "Internet 2" has been so low-key that I tend to forget about it. I believe it is connecting several colleges & "research" sites- as they "test" the improved infrastructure needed for a large increase in speeds. While, co-incidentally, getting the participant's traffic off the normal (busy, slow) internet - so they don't have their networks bogged-down by spam, virues, P2P, etc. Must be nice!

5. I am curious to see if the WiMax standard will allow ISPs to provide high-speed access to homes and apartments - without the expense of running fibre to every subscriber.

[Lucifers_Ghost]

Meh, Im on Rogers Cable up here in Ontario, Canada and its a 3meg service. But honestly, half the time, you cant download anything faster than 50 or 60k/second. Sites load up fairly quickly with rarely any lag time. Im speaking strickly downloading from a variety of manners.

Like someone said, until everyone is on at least a 3mb broadband connection, then a 10, 20, 50, 100mb connection is pretty useless.

Of course, this is just my opinion.

LG

[DereX888]

Meh, Im on Rogers Cable up here in Ontario, Canada and its a 3meg service. But honestly, half the time, you cant download anything faster than 50 or 60k/second. Sites load up fairly quickly with rarely any lag time. Im speaking strickly downloading from a variety of manners.

Like someone said, until everyone is on at least a 3mb broadband connection, then a 10, 20, 50, 100mb connection is pretty useless.

Of course, this is just my opinion.

LG

Obviously it all depends on how many neighbours in your area share the server.
When I was probably the first person (in my area) to get cable internet I had downloads up to full speed of my modem, and uploads used to reach 200kbps too! (man, those were good times lol) Ofcoz it all depended on sites I connected to.
Then around 1999/2000 they start capping upload speeds, and later they capped downloads as well (I think it happened when Rogers switched to running Windows 2003 on their servers). So for now the only way to get faster speed on Rogers is to get DOCSIS modem, as this somehow let you pass the downspeed limit. Since I bought DOCSIS modem my combined downloads always exceed 500Kbps (kilobytes) in total, and sometimes reach 600kbps - which actually is close to 5Mbps (megabits).

Dont ask me how it works, or will it work on other kind of connectiins or with other providers. I dont know.
I got this hint from one of the cable installers working for Rogers, and I thought theres no harm to try it since $90 for a modem isnt much, and Im happy it works for me. Now if there is a way to disobey upload speed limits... pls LMK!

[Lucifers_Ghost]

Interesting. Anyone know where you can get a DOCSIS modem? I will assume any "run of the mill" computer store or Future Shop type place?

LG

[JohnnyCNote]

Look on eBay....

[handyguy]

Its coming to the US some day too. I saw quotes of 10mps for $49 month, 30mbits wasn't priced yet but was over $69 a month.

[DereX888]

Interesting. Anyone know where you can get a DOCSIS modem? I will assume any "run of the mill" computer store or Future Shop type place?

LG

Downtown Toronto Chinatown, thats where I usually do shopping. If youre nearby go check it out, selection and prices are amazing. And you still can bargain at some stores too
Try it there, you'll never do any shopping at Future Shop again (or any other thieves like them).
Also Pacific Mall in Markham is good too (pricewise).

[beavereater]

I live in Japan and in order to get the 1gig, you have to have your building (the apartment you live in) wired for it. Otherwise, you can't get it. SO...I live in an older building, and the owner will not be shelling out the yen to get this shit installed...its more for people who own homes. Even then, Japanese people are so far behind on how to use the internet I don't even know why they would offer something like this.