October 27, 2016 // 09:30 AM EST
What does the guy with the fastest internet in the United States use
his jealousy-inducing bandwidth for? Analyzing X-rays… and gaining an
advantage in Call of Duty, of course.
Startup and community-run internet service providers have grabbed
headlines over the last two years as they’ve begun rolling out the
first 10 gigabit-per-second residential internet connections in the
United States. As far as I can tell, though, only one person in the
entire country has actually bought one of these connections, which are
still incredibly expensive because the technology is so cutting edge.
I met with James Busch—a radiologist and the proud owner of what I am
almost certain is the first 10 Gbps residential connection in the United
States—at a coffee shop in Chattanooga, Tennessee. I told him about my
trials and tribulations with Time Warner Cable in New York City, and he
tried to drum up some empathy from a distant past in which he used to
send medical imaging studies on a T1 line in Boston. I reminded him that
most of us were still on dialup at the time. And then I raised the
point that his family alone is living in our blazing fast future.
“When you think about it like that, it’s pretty cool,” Busch told me. “You get spoiled with it.”
For reference, the Federal Communications Commission officially
classifies “broadband” as 25 Mbps. His connection is 400 times faster
than that.
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| Busch's fiber setup. His entire house is wired, and fiber comes directly into the house. Image: James Busch
|
An argument that’s increasingly being raised by
policymakers and telecom companies
is that gigabit fiber networks—which generally offer 1 Gbps
connections—have had relatively slow uptake, because no one needs a
connection that fast. Busch found a way to make good use of his 1 Gbps
connection, and now he's found a use for 10 Gbps, too.
“An X-ray averages around 200 megabytes, then you have PET scans
and mammograms—3D mammograms are 10 gig files, so they’re enormous,”
Busch said. “We go through terabytes a year in storage. We’ve calculated
out that we save about 7 seconds an exam, which might seem like, ‘Who
cares,’ but when you read 20,000 or 30,000 exams every year, it turns
out to be something like 10 days of productivity you’re saving just from
a bandwidth upgrade.”
While 10 gig connections sound excessive at the moment, Busch says his family quickly started using all of its 1 gig bandwidth.
“We ballooned into that gig within eight or nine months. With my
kids watching Netflix instead of TV, with me working, we did utilize
that bandwidth,” he said. “There were situations where my daughter would
be FaceTiming and the others would be streaming on the 4K TVs and
they’d start screaming at each other about hogging the bandwidth. We
don’t see that at 10 gigs.”
"You get used to everything happening instantly"
Most importantly, though, his connection has made him a better gamer, because of a
phenomenon known as “host advantage” that exists on games that use peer-to-peer servers.
“If you play first person shooters and you’re the host, you get a
few milliseconds advantage on other people you’re playing against,”
Busch said. “If you have a gig connection, you’re always host, so you
end up ruling. I used to play with my buddies online, and one was from
Chattanooga so it was always me or him who was the host. We’d always
rule Call of Duty with 20 or 30 kills.”
“You get used to everything happening instantly,” he added.
“Windows updates, app downloads—instant. The only thing that ties it up
is processing power, not the connection.”
"Offering 10 gigs has the symbolic value of ‘plenty.’ It shows our technology can do what no one else can do."
So why does Busch have a 10 Gbps and the rest of us
don’t? For one, 10 Gbps offerings are rare and scattered in mostly rural
communities that have decided to build their own internet networks.
Most companies that have the technology offer gigabit connections (a
still cutting-edge technology only available in a handful of cities) at
affordable prices and 10 Gbps connections at comparatively exorbitant
ones. In Chattanooga, 1 gig connections are $69.99 per month; 10 gig
connections are $299.
Thus far, 10 Gbps connections are available in Chattanooga; parts
of southern Vermont; Salisbury, North Carolina; and parts of Detroit
and Minneapolis. But besides Busch, I couldn’t find any other people in
the United States who have signed up for one.
EPB, the Chattanooga government-owned power utility that runs the
network, confirmed that Busch is the city’s only 10 Gbps residential
customer. Rocket Fiber, which recently began offering 10 Gbps in
Detroit, told me that it has “no customers set in stone,” but that it’s
in talks with prospective ones. Representatives for
US Internet in Minneapolis and
Fibrant in Salisbury did not respond to my requests for comment. Michel Guite, president of the
Vermont Telephone Company, told me his network has no 10 Gbps customers, either.
“We offer it as a symbolic gesture,” Guite told me. “Offering 10
gigs has the symbolic value of ‘plenty.’ It shows our technology can do
what no one else can do. We think the project is fun.”
Guite says that several research institutions have 10 Gbps
connections, and Fibrant’s first 10 Gbps connection was a local school.
If you know of anyone else who has 10 Gbps as a residential customer,
email me with a screenshot of your speed test or your story!
Speaking of speed tests: Busch says only a couple providers can actually handle his connection.
“When I do a speed test, you really feel the engines are turning
when you hit the button. I’m at 9.8, 9.5 [gigs per second] reliably,”
Busch told me. He was supposed to send me a screenshot of the speed
test, but technical difficulties have made it inaccessible for weeks.
“I’ve tried on sites that don’t support the 10 gig connection and it
freaks out. The speedometer only says 1 gig, but it’ll wrap around a
couple times.”
Colman Keane, director of fiber technology at EPB, told me that
the organization had to work with Ookla (the most popular online speed
test) to “tweak” its system to accommodate the connections.
Another problem affecting 10 Gbps uptake—at least in
Chattanooga—is that it isn’t being pushed too hard by EPB because few
customers are willing to invest in the enterprise-level internet ports
and cables needed to actually get those speeds. Keane said EPB has been
more conservative in promoting 10 gig connections because of growing
pains it had with 1 gig customers.
“During our 1 gig launch we ran into numerous Windows-based
computers with 1 gig ports that had drivers that would only support
between 500 and 600 mbps, which makes for a difficult conversation with a
customer,” Keane said, meaning customers weren’t getting what they paid
for because their computers couldn’t handle it. “Prior to [10 gig]
launch, we spent a good bit of time determining minimum specs for both
PCs and routers. So with this launch, we can generally start the
conversation with what kind of equipment they will need to use the 10
gig service.”
Busch, an early adopter of just about everything, says he’s only
got two machines hard-wired to be able to take advantage of the 10 Gbps
connection; his wireless router is only able to put out a 3 Gbps signal.
Somehow, I don’t feel bad for him.
