Slashdot Mirror

You like the upstream and live in Sacramento, CA area? Then check out Surewest. I've got their 20Mbit/s service and you get every bit (no pun intended) of bandwidth that you pay for. They also have a 50Mbit/s service, but it is kind of pricey. Like $250 a month unbundled, or $190 if you bundle it with TV or phone and 1 year contract. But for either of those prices, how can you beat 50Mbit/s upload AND download. My friend has the 50Mbit/s and he absolutely loves it. They also supposedly have monthly caps, but I've transferred WELL over the cap a few times and never heard a peep from them. From what I understand their entire infrastructure is run on Cisco equipment and their backbone provider is Level3.

I'm not shilling for them or anything, just a very happy customer. Their tech support lacks at times, email web interface sucks ass, but the service is rock solid and I've never had my connection go down 1 single time in 4 years with the exception of California rolling blackouts a couple summers ago.

Multicast, sir. Like SureWest is already doing.

An original XBOX running XBMC and using XBMSP (SMB works too). XBMC is one of my favorite open source applications ever. I have a Windows Server 2003 server running RAID5, about 1TB of space, and I have it loaded with Music, Movies, TV Shows, etc.. Some movies and TV shows I have are DVD rips, and some are downloaded (I know, I'm an asshole, but that's beside the point). Get the Microsoft High Definition AV Pack and you got optical audio and component video. I know it isn't HDMI, but it still looks fantastic.

Even better.. My next door neighbors, who are avid TV watchers (who isn't?) have 3 XBOXs in their house that I've built for them, and I have 2 in my house. To avoid having to stream over our Internet connections we have run a CAT5 cable between houses to link them up to my server. I also have an XBOX for my Brother, Dad, and Girlfriend. Unfortunately they are on shitty Comcast, but you know what's great about that? They still have 8Mbps+ downstream so I am able to stream shows to them over the Internet from my connection. Of course I have 20Mbps up/down fiber optic service (gotta love Surewest), otherwise that wouldn't be possible with the typical upstream bandwidth that most providers give you. I just setup the XBMC config file to point to my hostname or IP address at home and they can browse all the media files I have.

I think it's a very nice setup that isn't that difficult to implement.

Smaller ILECs that are doing FTTH such as my employer, Surewest, have been doing 20/20 for quite a while now in the greater Sacramento area. We also have a lot of fiber in our CLEC territories now where we are directly competing with AT&T and their awesome U-Verse product... We offer up to 50/50 as well that's pretty damn expensive...

...but I love living in Sacramento, where I can get Surewest and have 100Mbps fiber optic service available to my house. Of course only 20Mbps of it is dedicated for my Internet connection (they have 50Mbps available), but it is still very nice service. I also have TV, which has room for improvement, but the picture quality on their HD service is awesome. I think I remember reading a quote from their CEO that said in the event of having a customer who wants 50Mbps plus more than 3 rooms of HD service, they will even run a second line from the pole to your house for another 100Mbps of bandwidth just to provide all the services to a customer.

The cable and phone companies need to get their heads out of their asses and run fiber to every home. I have a friend who works at AT&T as a fiber splicer, and he said they are running a lot of fiber, but most of it is just to the neighborhoods where they will then run VDSL to each home from remote terminals. With the amount of money the behemoths have, you think they would just run fiber straight to every home and get it over with. Eventually they will have to do it anyways.

I have a 20Mbps symmetrical fiber connection through Surewest in Sacramento, CA and they don't seem to do much. Originally their ToS said you couldn't use more than 40GB per month (up or down, whichever is more) and charged you a modest amount extra per GB for that month, but they originally came up with those terms when they only offered 10Mbps and DSL. Since then, they have introduced 20Mbps and 50Mbps packages, and I have heard (yet not confirmed) that they have increased the monthly quota up to 100-200GB, depending on what speed package you have. I let a friend of mine who is on a slow DSL connection (384kbps, he is at the edge of service area) remote desktop into one of my computers and download a lot of torrents, and then later burns them on CD/DVD. On some months, between the both of us, we download a lot of stuff. I used to run pfSense, and the MRTG software built-in showed that I had transferred atleast 500GB one month. I have yet to hear anything from Surewest regarding that. I once was in contact with an employee via email who told me they don't enforce their caps unless a user is abusing the service. I guess one could say that I abuse the service, but I think they mean in terms of impacting other customers' connection speed in the neighborhood. Since they have 100Mbps to each customer, and up to 10Gbps neighborhood backbones, I don't think they'll be running low on bandwidth anytime soon.

..if companies such as Surewest are signing franchise agreements. They also offer the exact same service in Sacramento, as well as other areas in the region (Elk Grove, Natomas, etc). If they are in direct competition with companies such as AT&T, why the hell should AT&T be exempt from franchise agreements? I understand that AT&T probably does not plan on running fiber in Northern California central valley region, but some of these same rules should apply from one market to the next. I believe that the CPUC considers a specific class of provider as "Broadband Overbuilders", and they are under the same restrictions as Cable Providers. The FCC needs to strike down on companies like AT&T and make them pay like everyone else.

Unfortunately some companies, such as AT&T and BellSouth (which are becoming the same soon) don't get it. They don't seem to realize that the switch to fiber will be inevitable, and they are currently falling behind in this race for speed. In its current carnation, ADSL is not capable of handling Voice, Internet, and TV service, and while I have read that they have plans to implement VDSL, it will have its limits as well. It is good to see a huge company such as Verizon understand that they will need to make a huge investment, even though they have a control over certain markets and aren't really being forced to upgrade. In my area, SureWest has been running fiber in many parts of Sacramento, and they already offer 100Mbps fiber directly to customers houses. The CEO has admitted it will cost them a lot of money, and will be a slow upgade, but they have already been successful in their attempts. If a relatively small company like SureWest can compete in a market that has been controlled by AT&T and Comcast, then I'm sure it is possible in many other big cities around the United States. I have their service, and one thing that I find amazing is they can upgade to 1Gbps to their customers relatively easy by switching out line cards in their 4500 Cisco routers when it becomes necessary to keep up with or get ahead of the competition. The same can be done by switching to 10Gbps uplink from 4500 series to 6500 series routers that are connecting neighborhoods to their backbone. Now that is building for the future.

I guess I'm very fortunate. My ISP, Surewest, offers 10 and 20Mbps symmetrical speeds for great prices ($30 and $50 respectively if you include phone or TV service and year contract). I have the 20Mbps package and I get full speeds through their network as well as most other areas around the US consistently. It is nice to know that you have an alternative to the behemoths such as Comcast and AT&T. I always wonder why there aren't more companies like Surewest popping up around the country. I know there are projects (i.e. municiple) which are trying to offer fiber services, but there seems to be no large effort other than maybe Verizon's FiOS. I know it is expensive, and I think much of the time you find these service offerings in newly developed areas, but I live in the oldest part of Sacramento yet Surewest still made a concerted effort to run the fiber through my neighborhood. A Surewest company executive said publicly that they will not make money at first with their aggressive deployment, but eventually I think that it will pay off (it already has started to). Of course companies like BellSouth and AT&T have a very shortsighted view of things.. imagine if they put more resources into running fiber to their customers. They are delaying the inevitable, while at the same time allowing their competitors the chance to get a foothold. They don't give a shit about faster speeds.

Can anyone explain to me how a company such as Surewest is able to run fiber through certain parts of a city that is primarily dominated by AT&T and Comcast? Maybe there is some unique situation here, but one would think that it might become more common, atleast in California. They have already committed to spending a lot of money on expanding their network, and they have a long ways to go, but as it is, they have about 20,000 customers and their service is available to approximately 80,000 homes. They just started offering HD service over their IPTV network.

I also like reading about how they are using Cisco 4500/6500 switches to bring access to their customers.. 100Mbps with ability to upgrade to 1Gbps to every home :-)

Of those who can get it, how many get more than 1.5 Mbps? Yeah, thought so.

I have 10Mbps (both ways) connection to my home. It runs over the same 100Mbps line that my television and phone service is distributed on. You should check it out if you are in their area.

Guess I am one of the lucky ones in the U.S. who is able to get fiber.

Does anyone know if Sacramento got their city-wide fiber-to-the-home project completed? The last I heard, the company had gone bankrupt during installation, and had been bought by someone else.

Not quite city-wide fiber, but the company is still working on it. Winfirst was the company that originally offered FTTH in parts of Sacto, but they did go bankrupt a few years ago. They have since been taken over by Surewest (which I believe was formerly Roseville Telephone). As far as I can tell they plan to continue building their fiber network. They claim that they aren't currently making much of a profit, because they are committed to reinvesting millions into the fiber network. But I just got their service (just TV and Internet, although they offer phone as well) about 6 months ago and it is very nice. 10Mbps both ways for Internet. They have a limit to 40GB transfers per month but they seem pretty lax on enforcing it unless you are heavily abusing the limit. As for the TV service, it has its up and downs, but overall it is up to par with Comcast. As far as reliability, both TV and Internet seem to never go down.

In my opinion, as long as they can keep on making a profit, extend their network, they should have a good chance at competing with both Comcast and SBC in the area. The equipment they use runs at 100Mbps I believe, and I read a press release on Cisco's site about what equipment they are using which seems to suggest that they can upgrade to 1Gbps (to the home) without much hassle in the future. I don't know anything about fiber but maybe someone more knowledgeable can correct me on this if I am wrong.

But what about Internet? First off, if you have fiber to the home, an alternative DSL provider like Covad is usually cut off, period.

Maybe it is just an exception, but I have fiber to the home (just TV and Internet... they offer phone service but I still haven't ordered it yet) through Surewest Communications. Before that I had DSL through Pacbell/SBC, and I am almost positive that Covad service was available in my area as well. I know that if FTTH was available from SBC, things might be entirely different, but the choice still remains in my area. The service from Surewest is great, 10Mbps bidirectional, and they seem fairly lax on their monthly bandwidth limits. Unfortunately, Surewest isn't available all over my city right now but they are expanding as quickly as they can.

Never mind - it seems they hide the information about the 10mbps residential service unless it is actually available in your area. I had to try a bunch of zip codes until I found one that was "likely to have service" before it showed up.
That sounds like an awesome service - here is the description for anyone who is curious.

What service do you have from them? The only fiber service I could find on their website listed max speeds of 5 Mbps up and 5 Mbps down for $1,699 a month. Even assuming they actually meant MBps, their cheapest listed fiber offering is .5 up and .5 down for $169 a month. I'm just wondering what service you are actually getting, as I live in an area that they claim will be receiing service soon, and I'm looking for alternatives to my current SBC DSL.