Sony Launches World's Fastest Personal Internet in Japan

[Steven Bogos]

Sony Launches World's Fastest Personal Internet in Japan

So-net Entertainment's 'Nuro' fiber service for home use will support a whopping 2gbps downstream.

We all knew Japan has some pretty awesome internet speeds, but this is just getting ridiculous. So-net Entertainment, an ISP backed by Sony, announced its 'Nuro' fiber service for home use, which supports download speeds of up to 2gbps. As in two gigabits. To put that into perspective, the average internet speed in the US is around 3mbps, with the fastest available internet capping out at around 150mbps. This means that So-net's Nuro service is up to 13 times faster than the fastest internet in the US.

The service also boasts 1gbps uploads and will be available to homes, apartments, and small businesses in Tokyo and six surrounding prefectures. What should you expect to pay for this monster connection? $200 a month? More? Hardly. The service will be available for just 4,980 yen a month (around $51 USD). I used to pay that for my crappy, less-than-1mbps ADSL back when I lived in Australia...

The company said the service includes rental of an ONU (optical network unit) designed to handle the high speeds. ONU devices are commonly used in homes and business to convert fiber to broadband Internet. Individual users of the service are unlikely to actually see the 2gps speeds on their devices, as it exceeds the capacity of most consumer network adapters. You heard right, your PC's network adapter is the bottleneck.

The Japanese government has been a very strong supporter of fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) connections to private homes. About 25% of Japanese households are currently connected, the second-highest rate in the world, although the highest rate, the United Arab Emirates (at 70%) does seem to be cheating a little, as the entire country is basically just a city.

So-net said its service uses the GPON, or Gigabit-capable Passive Optics Networks, standard, which supports up to 2.488gbps downstream.

Source: Computer World [https://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9238392/Sony_ISP_launches_world_39_s_fastest_home_Internet_2Gbps?source=rss_latest_content&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+computerworld%2Fnews%2Ffeed+%28Latest+from+Computerworld%29#39;s%20fastest%20for%20home%20use.]

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[T3hSource]

Swedes are not impressed, I can tell you that for a fact.
I don't know how Westerners tolerate >50 Mbps connections.

 

[Leg End]

To put that into perspective, the average internet speed in the US is around 3mbps, with the fastest available internet capping out at around 29mbps. This means that So-net's Nuro service is up to 70 times faster than the fastest internet in the US.

Actually... nurp. Used to have the 50 down/25 up plan personally and damn did it feel good to basically be a leech station for any friends that needed to download anything.

Still incredibly jealous and drooling at those speeds though. ,D:

 

[Product Placement]

As envious I am about the concept of 2gbps download speed (although I can't for the life of me understand what the average user could use it for), I'm a little skeptical about the the US internet cap. Surely it's higher than 29mbps. Where I live, fiber optics have become, more or less, the norm with download speeds of up to 50-100mbps.

I mean, yeah, I've heard that there are places in the states that still use Dial-up, but I know that there are more developed areas that have fiber optics.

Edit:

Actually... nurp.

Indeed. According to this place, they offer up to 300mbps download rate. So unless they're flat out lying about their services being capable of handling even 10% of what they're promising, you might need to update that news report.

 

[Leg End]

Swedes are not impressed, I can tell you that for a fact.
I don't know how Westerners tolerate >50 Mbps connections.

We don't. Those that do are perfectly ok with getting screwed over and those that aren't are fighting the monopoly.
Some are lucky to get 1mbps both ways for less than $60 in some areas. Know someone personally with satellite internet that pays out the ass just to get something barely fast enough for Monster Hunter. :/

 

[Mromson]

Just some of you have access to higher speeds, doesn't mean the average isn't as low as 3mbps. AVERAGE, people. The average doesn't concern itself with individual numbers.

 

[Product Placement]

Just some of you have access to higher speeds, doesn't mean the average isn't as low as 3mbps. AVERAGE, people. The average doesn't concern itself with individual numbers.

Here. Let me bold the part that we're actually talking about.

the average internet speed in the US is around 3mbps, with the fastest available internet capping out at around 29mbps.

captcha: "My dear Watson"

 

[Kahani]

Just some of you have access to higher speeds, doesn't mean the average isn't as low as 3mbps. AVERAGE, people. The average doesn't concern itself with individual numbers.

Just some of you have access to lower speeds, doesn't mean the maximum isn't higher than the article claimed. MAXIMUM, person. The maximum doesn't concern itself with average numbers.

although I can't for the life of me understand what the average user could use it for

Porn, obviously. All the porn.

 

[Steven Bogos]

To put that into perspective, the average internet speed in the US is around 3mbps, with the fastest available internet capping out at around 29mbps. This means that So-net's Nuro service is up to 70 times faster than the fastest internet in the US.

Actually... nurp. Used to have the 50 down/25 up plan personally and damn did it feel good to basically be a leech station for any friends that needed to download anything.

Still incredibly jealous and drooling at those speeds though. ,D:

Thanks for that. I'm not actually American so I was just searching around for fastest speeds in America, i'll update the article.

EDIT: It looks like the advertised 300mpbs plans are not actually available for purchase on the website (at least from what I can see), so i'm going to set it at 150

 

[Product Placement]

although I can't for the life of me understand what the average user could use it for

Porn, obviously. All the porn.

Well, Japan's birth rate has been plummeting, so I'll take this a valid explanation.

But damn... how High Definition do you need the stuff to be?

 

[silverbullet1989]

god damn it, im lucky to push 1mb download speed and thats when using steam, usually download about 500kbps-800kbps =/

 

[Yuuki]

Oh god...only in Japan where every square meter has at least 2 people occupying it :S

 

[Andy Shandy]

Much admit I'm feeling rather jealous of the Japanese right now, even if I have no idea how anyone would ever need that sort of speed.

 

[Dark Knifer]

It took me a couple of minutes to download a 5 megabyte file :/

I like living in Australia. Most of the time.

 

[Boris Goodenough]

But damn... how High Definition do you need the stuff to be?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra_high_definition_television HIGH!

which is around 50Mbps

Swedes are not impressed, I can tell you that for a fact.
I don't know how Westerners tolerate >50 Mbps connections.

I can live with >50Mbps, living with <50 is hard

 

[Evil Smurf]

That's it, I'm moving to Japan.

I've a 10-14mbps at home.

 

[Leg End]

(although I can't for the life of me understand what the average user could use it for)

Steam. Having to patch some of the bigger games can take a stupid amount of time, let alone the larger games taking up a connection for days if you want something like Grand Theft Auto IV or for even the Company of Heroes 2 beta on a 1mbps connection in the middle of nowhere, which is everywhere but New York and bits of California.

Thanks for that. I'm not actually American so I was just searching around for fastest speeds in America, i'll update the article.

EDIT: It looks like the advertised 300mpbs plans are not actually available for purchase on the website (at least from what I can see), so i'm going to set it at 150

Perfectly understandable.
Double when 30mbps is shoved in our faces to be "the nation's most powerful internet".

 

[Octorok]

MEANWHILE, IN THE UNITED KINGDOM

[http://www.speedtest.net]

~300kb a second. That's actually pretty good for here (Scotland). What you can't see is that the connection drops 2-3 times a day. Always at the end of long downloads and during online games.

[sup]Seriously, every goddamn time[/sup]

 

[Product Placement]

(although I can't for the life of me understand what the average user could use it for)

Steam. Having to patch some of the bigger games can take a stupid amount of time, let alone the larger games taking up a connection for days if you want something like Grand Theft Auto IV or for even the Company of Heroes 2 beta on a 1mbps connection in the middle of nowhere, which is everywhere but New York and bits of California.

You do realize that this was in the context of me talking about 2 GIGABITS per bloody second here. That's two thousand times faster then 1mbps.

I, myself, am running a 50 mbps connection and my Steam updates my game library plenty fast. I still don't see the point of an average user needing something that's 40 times faster.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra_high_definition_television HIGH!

which is around 50Mbps

And yet... that's still not 2000Mbps. What, are you gonna run 40 movies simultaneously?

 

[razrdedg]

Probably need just a little more googling: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Fiber

1GB in the US is our best and handily beats pretty much everyone but Japan of course. Granted we need to wait a while for it to cover the US but that is the plan as I understand it.

Congrats Japan