If you thought Google Fiber with its 1Gbps speeds was fast, think again. A Japanese ISP, which is backed by Sony, is now offering plans with 2Gbps download and 1Gbps upload speeds in Tokyo and six districts surrounding it. So-net Entertainment is now offering this service to small businesses, apartments and homes in the aforementioned locations. The fiber based service is called Nuro which uses GPON, or Gigabit-capable Passive Optics Networks, that is able to support download speeds up to 2.488 Gbps. The service costs ¥4,980 or approximately US$51 per month with a two-year contract. There’s also a ¥52,500 installation fee which is being waived if the customer applies online for the service.
The caveat with such high speeds is that the average user won’t exactly be able to extract the full benefit. Generally, computers can only accept up to one gigabyte and that too through a wired connection. It is much worse over Wi-Fi. The benefit isn’t much for individual users, but such high speed connection will definitely benefit multiple users, as the connection can better handle the increased load from different users.
Filed in . Read more about Gigabit, Google Fiber and Sony.