said by axus:Why do you think it would cost so much to provide a gigabit connection? You can rent a server with Gigabit speeds for like $20/mo, the hardware cost to Google is probably on the level of the server price. Maintaining a fiber network is cheaper than a copper one, right?
You are wrong on every single one of those points.
First of all, the server. Go find me a truly unlimited gigabit dedicated server with a decent BGP blend of bw providers for under, let's say, $500/mo. Good luck, because such a thing dosn't exist. There's only a handful of dedis in this price range, all of which have extremely terrible networks.
That $20 server? Shared gigabit line, low bandwidth, probably oversold, and a budget transit or single-homed network. And that's being optimistic.
Datacenters are NOT a good comparison to use. They do not have to maintain their own fiber rings/backbones, last-mile networks, nodes, infrastructure, etc. They do not have to pay for modems for every customer, they do not have to run miles and miles of fiber through a large city, they do not have to pay for permits to run said fiber... They need a building, stable power, some pricy UPS/genset systems, a few fiber lines, and a ridiculous cooling system.
Also, good luck finding a dedicated server at $20 with a gigabit line. Online.net is the only provider offering gigabit at that price, and their gigabit has exceedingly bad international transit (as well as a impressively bad network). Kimsufi doesn't count, they use 100Mbit lines with 5TB limits.
An ISP has WAY more infrastructure to maintain than a server provider. Comparing the two directly is idiotic.