Word is coming in that UTOPIA customers on the 100Mbps tier are about to get a very nice present: a free bump to 250Mbps. SumoFiber has already updated their website to reflect the change and other providers are expected to follow suit soon. This counters the fastest tier that Comcast has been able to offer (before their fabled 2Gbps vaporware tier materializes) with 5x the upload and blows way past the horrifically antiquated ADSL2+ tiers that CenturyLink hasn’t updated in many, many years.
This highlights the power of using a fiber network. When you need more speed, you flip a switch and maybe upgrade some electronics. CenturyLink is still years from offering any significant fiber deployments (outside of heavily cherry-picked areas willing and able to pay big bucks) and Comcast is still having trouble getting DOCSIS 3.1 rolled out in any significant volume to deliver anything approaching what UTOPIA is doing now.
If you’re on UTOPIA, have you already gotten the speed bump? Sound off in the comments.
Any news on us 1Gbps users?
GIG pricing is expected to drop very very soon.
-sumofiber
How soon? Mine just went up (cause of utopia fee’s)
guessing next month.
I’m on Sumo’s 100/100 plan and can confirm I’m now getting around 315/315! I had to bypass my router and connect directly to the portal to see those speeds. It seems that even on a GigE wired connection my router just could pedal fast enough to keep up with Sumo. Guess I’ll have to celebrate and buy a new router.
I highly recommend routers from Ubiquiti for those with the technical chops to use them. Great performance and tons of features for not a lot of money. I’m planning on getting one of their APs too.
I haven’t seen anything from Xmission on this. Hoping they get on board.
Also, I’m curious how this affects people like me with 100mbit CPE equipment. They will physically need to replace my fiber gateway before I’ll see any more than 100mbit.
Yes, of course we are going to offer it. Roll out has already begun.
But its a somewhat complicated project, and this announcement was released ahead of the planned schedule. The initial upgrade will be automatically applied to about one third of the network in the coming two weeks, after which the basic speed for new orders will be 250 Mbps. As of this morning, only a handful of users have been upgraded.
XMission’s price will be unchanged, and I understand most — if not all — of the other providers intend to follow suit.
The rest of the upgrades will roll out slowly over a period of about two years, as those homes will require a hardware upgrade (the Allied Telesyn installed in the earlier years of UTOPIA only have a 100 Mbps WAN port and needs to be replaced). Details for this project will be released by UTOPIA in the coming week.
We are going to send a direct announcement to those customers that are eligible for the immediate automatic upgrade early this week. I would presume other providers are doing something similar.
*There will be a reasonably priced expedite option for people who do not want to wait.
Got my email from XMission just today that I’m getting the bump. Neat!
My Allied Telesis equipment was upgraded last week after I paid the $50 “truck roll” fee. I called on Monday and the install was scheduled for Thursday. The UTOPIA tech had to change the interface from 100 mbps to 1 gbps in the UTOPIA hut where my fiber terminates then came to replace my local equipment. UTOPIA had coordinated with XMission and my connection came up immediately, including the subnet I get from XMisssion. Total down time was about 30 minutes. My current router has gigE connections but its SPI firewall is not quite powerful enough to pass 250 mbps, I’m getting about 180 mbps.
As I mentioned in another post I had UTOPIA install a new gateway but was unable to reach 250 mbps because of my router, a ZyXEL USG50. I replace the USG50 with a Ubiquiti EdgeRouter X, $55 on Amazon, and I’m now getting about 275 mbps down and up. The EdgeRouter doesn’t have all the features of the USG50 but it has all I need and you can’t beat the price.