Last March, NPD Group projected that there were around 734 million connected devices in use in the United States, averaging 7.8 connected devices per home. And it’s not exactly a bold guess to say that number has probably boomed in the ensuing months since the research firm released that report. With all those gadgets demanding a lot of upload and download attention from broadband networks in both homes and businesses, announcements from a variety of providers about speed boost offerings aren’t hard to come by.
Verizon made one of the latest reveals of an advanced speed service rollout on Thursday, saying that on Jan. 14 it will begin offering Fios Instant Internet with equal upload and download speeds of 750 Mbps. The symmetrical nature of the offering is interesting given that most ultra high-speed services pushing toward 1 Gbps don’t offer upload speeds similar to download. The Fios 750/750 Mbps symmetrical speeds will reportedly be available to nearly seven million homes and businesses in New York City/northern New Jersey, Philadelphia, and Richmond, Va. More markets are promised this year, including Boston and Norfolk, Va., later in the first quarter.
“No internet service provider has come close to offering upload and download speeds like these at such a massive scale as Fios Instant Internet,” Ken Dixon, president of Verizon’s consumer landline business, says. “Ever since we decided to build the nation’s largest 100 percent fiber-to-the-home network 14 years ago, we’ve been saying that it is a future-proof technology. The future is now here with Fios Instant Internet.”
As for price, it’s going for just a hair under $150/month for standalone service, and $169.99 a month for a triple-play bundle with TV and landline phone voice service.
