Sony launches world’s fastest personal internet in Japan
Baku, April 17 (AZERTAC). A Sony-backed ISP in Japan has launched a 2Gbps Internet service, which it said is the world's fastest for home use. So-net Entertainment began offering its "Nuro" fiber-based service on Monday to homes, apartments, and small businesses in Tokyo and six surrounding prefectures. Nuro will cost ¥4,980 (US$51) per month on a two-year contract, plus a ¥52,500 installation fee that it is currently offering for free for those that apply online. The upload speed is 1Gbps.
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 see 2Gbps speeds on their devices, as it exceeds the capacity of most consumer network adaptors.
The Japanese government has strongly backed fiber connections to private residences, and the country is now among the world leaders. About 25 percent of Japanese households are currently connected, the second-highest rate in the world, according to data from regional FTTH, or Fibre to the Home, organizations. The UAE is the highest at over 70 percent.
Much of Japan's population in Tokyo and other cities lives in tightly packed apartments, which has made it easier to roll out fiber services. Services offering 1Gbps are now common, with providers slashing prices and offering hundreds of dollars in discounts to draw subscribers. As in other countries, the rollout has been much lower in lower-populated rural areas.
So-net said its service uses the GPON, or Gigabit-capable Passive Optics Networks, standard, which supports up to 2.488 Gbps downstream.
Customers are required to sign up for a two-year contract (which is not unusual here in Japan) and pay 52,500 yen for the initial installation, meaning that the service certainly doesn’t come cheap, but in a world where online gaming and the streaming of high-definition video requires as fast a connection as possible, we’d bet that So-net won’t have trouble finding customers.
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.
Other news in this section
