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Network The Internet Wireless Networking

Frontier's Bringing Its 5-Gig Fiber Network Across the Country 61

Posted by BeauHD from the new-and-improved dept.
Frontier, an internet service provider (ISP) that services 25 US states, has just launched 5 Gig fiber internet service across its entire network. The Verge reports: Frontier launched 2 Gig fiber internet service less than a year ago, and the 5 Gig plan is currently available in all of Frontier's fiber-connected markets, with no phased rollouts. Compared to the cable-bound internet that most of us are familiar with, Frontier's 5 Gig internet is reported to have upload speeds that are up to 125 times faster and up to five times faster downloads, all delivered with less latency. The new 5 Gig network is one of the fastest internet options currently available in the US, with other fiber-enabled ISPs like Verizon Fios and Google Fiber still capped at around 2Gbps.

Right now, the only other 5 Gig network currently available in the US is through AT&T, which offers 2 Gig and 5 Gig plans. Google Fiber is also slated to add 5-gig and 8-gig plans to its lineup sometime this year, despite its numerous setbacks.
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Frontier's Bringing Its 5-Gig Fiber Network Across the Country More

Frontier's Bringing Its 5-Gig Fiber Network Across the Country

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  • Is it 5 gig total data allowance for the month? Because that's terrible for $155.
    Maybe it's 5 gig download speed. Because that's terrible too.
  • EPB Fiber in Chattanooga has had 10Gig for years and they recently are offering 25Gig for any home or business that they service. All of their service plans are fully symmetrical speeds. 300Mbps, 1Gig, 10Gig and 25Gib

    • Wow, I would love to have even 2Mbps upload.

      • I have 300 mbps symmetrical at home and with 4 people streaming video it doesn't miss a beat.
        I did build my own router though. The ones the ISP's hand out for free where I live are rubbish.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by SeaFox ( 739806 )

          I have 300 mbps symmetrical at home and with 4 people streaming video it doesn't miss a beat.

          I should certainly hope not. You should be able to do that in 1/3rd the speed.

    • Re:EPB (Score:4, Informative)

      by youngone ( 975102 ) on Monday January 30, 2023 @10:57PM (#63252685)
      Wasn't EPB Fiber in Chattanooga the community owned ISP the monopoly incumbents tried to kill?
      It sounds pretty close to communism for America, but I'm sure the good people of Chattanooga enjoy their fast, affordable Internet speeds.

      • It isn't community-owned. At all. The EPB operates as a corporation.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Ly4 ( 2353328 )

          "EBP ... owned by the city of Chattanooga, Tennessee."

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

          Sounds like it is community-owned.

          • It isn't. The most oversight any government agency has over the EPB is that the mayor of Chattanooga can appoint some people to the board.

            The EPB rolled out their fiber network the same way a corporation would: it issued a corporate bond. Taxpayer money didn't fund it. It's 100% a for-profit venture. The only advantage the EPB had over insertcorporationhere is that they have right-of-way on every power pole in their service area. Which is basically something Comcast and AT&T have already.

            In no way

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by Ly4 ( 2353328 )

              In no way is it "community owned".
              Except for the part where they are quite literally owned by the community.

              If you want to make the argument that they behave exactly like a privately-owned company would, then make that argument, but claiming they aren't community-owned is not accurate phrasing.

              Note that there seem to be some things that will work against that argument, if you choose to make it, e.g.:
              - This statement [epb.com], where they claim their mission is "to enhance quality of life for our customers and support

  • Who needs this!? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Dear lord. What is the size of the market of home users that actually need this as opposed to picking the super-duper-fast package because it sounds good?

    I have a 1 gigabit package from Frontier today and I'm nowhere close to being able to saturate it on any regular basis, and I'm a power user with a well-connected family that use all the typical bandwidth consuming services (streaming, etc.). I'd probably be just fine with the 500 mbps but I myself chose to pay $10 more per month because I thought it was k

    • I suspect you do not have any 4k streaming occurring, and/or if you do, your "4k streams" are highly compressed with lots of quality loss. A high quality 4k stream uses 128mbps for the video alone. Not only that, a lot of people are looking for 8k streaming now, so 512bpbs for the same compression as the 4k streams, but most are using different compression algorithms to get it in the 56mbps - 128mbps range since most home users don't have network speeds that can handle the lossless stream.

      • And what streaming service even offers such a bitrate that even 4 simultaneous streamers would get even halfway to 1gbps?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by nasch ( 598556 )

        So the question remains. At 512 mpbs, who is doing 10 simultaneous 8K video streams?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by leptons ( 891340 )
        >Not only that, a lot of people are looking for 8k streaming now

        What planet do you live on?? Because very, very few people on this one have 8K screens.
    • I live in a little town where Frontier is the phone company. They had maximum 12Mb DSL before this. With that slow a speed for internet and most people having ditched their landlines, they needed fiber to stay alive. I got their gigabit fiber as soon as it was available. Besides being cheaper than the cable company's offering it is also 1 gigabit symmetrical. Compared to the lame 35Mb upload from the cable company the upload speed was more noticeable to me than the download speed.

      Going forward the pr

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by vadim_t ( 324782 )

      At those bandwidths it's not about sustained use anymore. It's about making the extremes more comfortable.

      Eg, backing up 1 TB of data over a 1 Gbps connection takes more than 2 hours, and at 10 Gbps shrinks to 13 minutes. Now I don't copy disk images around all that often, but when I do, having them done after a coffee rather than by the next work day can be a nice quality of life improvement.

      The actual bandwidth usage probably remains the same at 1, 5, 10, and 25 Gbps for a lot of people, it just allows ge

  • In another report... (Score:4, Funny)

    by pagley ( 225355 ) on Monday January 30, 2023 @09:05PM (#63252487)

    It was additionally reported that nearly half of the customers in their fiber footprint have already signed up for service. Frontier says that they should have all 14 customers connected by the end of this year.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by leonbev ( 111395 )

      If you can actually get them to show up for the fiber installation appointment, it might actually be worthwhile. They never showed up for mine... three times in a row.

  • Dead center of Hollywood and they've had coverage stopping just 1 block short of my building for years still. Every time they make an announcement like this that hasn't changed.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by nasch ( 598556 )

      This announcement didn't indicate any expansion of their footprint, only a new service within that footprint. So you shouldn't expect anything new if you're not already within their service area.

  • 5-Gig internet, but still no IPv6 (Score:4, Informative)

    by kevmeister ( 979231 ) on Monday January 30, 2023 @09:13PM (#63252505) Homepage
    I'm delighted to see that Frontier is providing 5-Gig service to all customers, but what I'd really like to hear is that they are supporting IPv6 for their entire network. Comcast has done this for many years, but I'm now in Frontier-land and still no IPv6 nor any commitments as to when they might do so. In the meantime I have IPv6-only sites I need to reach that I have to use a 6-to-4 tunnel or something similar for. HE provides free tunnels (thanks!), but it's no substitute for a real IPv6 service.

    • Verizon, from which Frontier bought much of its network, was promising IPv6 for years. They even had a page that helpfully explained that once it was rolled out, each customer would get a /56 address, meaning they could have 56 LANs! I wrote to them several times to point out that this was not even remotely correct, but never got a response or a change.

      And now that I check their rollout page [verizon.com], it's still there:

      Verizon will use a IPv6/56 address format, which means this will support 56 LANs.

      If the same knowle

  • Ziply launched 5 gig service a year ago:

    https://www.fiercetelecom.com/broadband/ziply-debuts-2-gig-5-gig-internet-tiers-60-cities

    It is available to pretty much 100% of Ziply's fiber enabled customers at this point.

    Yes, there have been smaller providers who have offered 10g service in the past, but I think Ziply was the first large provider to offer true five gigabit service on a wide scale.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by leptons ( 891340 )
      I don't think there's a prize for being first to offer 5gig service. It's not a race, because it's more like a monopoly.

  • You'll need to update your ethernet switches. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by w3woody ( 44457 ) on Monday January 30, 2023 @09:34PM (#63252535) Homepage

    I have AT&T's 5gb service.

    The trick is, however, most desktop computers only have an ethernet connection out the back that can handle 1 gig at most. And most ethernet switches also cap out at 1gb over Cat-6.

    When we got AT&T, I actually went through my house and updated the switches to 10 gig switches, and I happen to have a Mac Pro that can handle 10 gig at the ethernet port. So I'm able to actually see 5 gig at my desktop. That makes software downloads fantastic--assuming the server you're downloading from also supports 5 gig, which may do not.

    So unless you're a power user, you have an especially fast ethernet connection off the back of your computer, have a computer capable of downloading data that quickly and storing data that quickly, and are talking to services which support that sort of bandwidth--you'll never use more than 1 gig transfer rates.

    • which switches/ethernet adapters/connectors are you using? i'm looking into foolproofing a home to support 10 Gb. hardly likely when using a laptop, as i don't think any laptop will come with such speedy adapter (that actually delivers that performance)

      • > which switches/ethernet adapters/connectors are you using?

        FWIW, I did my home server rack (Debian stable) with this kit:

        switch [amzn.to]
        NIC [amzn.to]
        SFP/cable [amzn.to]

        to get 10Gbe as cheaply as sensibly reasonable without huge power consumption. Mikrotik is weird to set up but if you're experienced with networking you can figure it out.

        The NIC's showed up as eth1 and that's the end of the excitement.

        Jumbo frames are supported but didn't make a statistical difference (iperf).

        > i'm looking into foolproofing a home to support 10

        • thanks, my own (quick) research pointed out to the Mikrotik 4 port version https://www.servethehome.com/m... [servethehome.com]

          supposedly as long as i don't enable any custom features i would get 10 Gb switching speeds

          now off to wait until frontier does the deed. they have just started to announce that they are "coming" to the neighborhood

  • Bandwidth is great,but other than cable company advertisements you don't need (and can't use 5Gbps or even 2Gbps when the port that hands off that bandwidth is only 1Gbps or 100Mbps...)

    Latency: The article says "all delivered with less latency".
    Um.
    Less latency than what? The speed of light in a plastic (or glass fiber) is constant. Unless you're doing GPON or WDM the latency is only measurable in the switching equipment (switches/routers) and everyone uses the same equipment, so NO, Frontier WILL NOT hav

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by nasch ( 598556 )

      Less latency than what?

      Cable.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by gavron ( 1300111 )

        >>Less latency than what?
        >
        >Cable.

        The speed of light through conventional fiber-optic cables is about the same as the speed of light through conventional fiber-optic strands. It's about 2/3 the speed of light in a vacuum. Copper has resistance, and fiber optic has the light bouncing around not going in a straight line.

        The switching equipment at either end can be a factor. Cable companies provide residential users cheap modems, and fiber telcos offer more expensive gear. Either way, though if

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by nasch ( 598556 )

          Some claim fiber has lower latency, some that it is the same as coax. Not sure who is correct. Also slashdot doesn't do markdown, you have to quote with HTML.

  • I've been living with 5M DSL for years now. It's great. Can't believe they're finally rolling that out to their customers. They'll be able to stream HD video, as long as it's 30fps or less. You can also download Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 in just under two weeks at that speed.

  • Am I the only one who read the summary and wondered whether someone mixed up 5G wireless service with 5 Gbps wired service?

    I can see some confused people out there. "Oh noes, that 5gbps service causes brain cancers!"

  • "the" country. There I was thinking there were a couple of hundred countries...

  • My mom had a bunch of shares of Frontier Communications...and I recall they went into bankruptcy etc and the stock ended up worthless

    So forgive me for being a bit surprised to hear how they're running new 5 gig fiber across country and doing other stuff - like.. I must be missing something -

    She didn't have a huge number but she had them for a long time and a couple years back they basically said "sorry we have zero value anymore" /confused

  • Have 100 gig fiber at home. My provider offers 1 gig for $70/mon, tax-included with no caps and supports Net Neutrality (500Mbit is $50/mon). They also offer 10 gig home and up to 100 gig business.

    The articles claim that AT&T and Frontier are the only 5 gig is incorrect. US Internet has offered such for quite some times in the Minneapolis area.

  • Bandwidth has always been a bottleneck in computing. I remember the 300 baud modem days. . .

    Once consumers have the hardware to actually and fully use this 5 Gbps bandwidth, what will people do with it? This is a serious question. We can already stream and game smoothly. I'm wondering what new uses will arise.

    What new killer apps will come out of widespread, super-fast citizen-level connectivity?

  • I'm a photographer in the Dallas area and whenever I upload photos to smugmug AT&T throttles my 300 meg connection down to 20 megs. If I connect using a VPN I get the full speed. 1 Gig is available to me, but why spend more for 1 gig if I also have to subscribe to a VPN just to make it work at full speed.

  • Right now, the only other 5 Gig network currently available in the US is through AT&T, which offers 2 Gig and 5 Gig plans.

    Just to be clear, there are municipal fiber providers that offer >5Gb/s in the US. Like EPB and their 25Gb plan. [epb.com] Optimum also offers a 5Gb plan [optimum.com].

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