25 Gbit/sec residential FTTH in Switzerland [German] | Hacker News Reader

25 Gbit/sec residential FTTH in Switzerland [German]

blog.init7.net

21 pointscimnine38 comments

People over in Germany struggle to get access to Fiber AT ALL. This country is so much sold on dying technologies...

People who get this should donate their excess bandwidth to a "worthy" cause.

For example e-hentai.org serve their images from a p2p system called hentai@home and their total network is only using ~4Gbit/sec:

https://e-hentai.org/hentaiathome.php

(or https://imgur.com/a/1H04buw if you don't want to login)

For what do you need redidential 25 Gbit/sec? Just because you can? Honest question.

"why do you need an automobile? carriages are perfectly fine"

The average person could easily tell the difference between an automobile and a carriage. Not so much the difference between 1 Gbps and 25 Gbps (for now at least). Latency is the more important issue, really.

> (for now at least)

that's the point, right there, the one you're missing.

pushing speeds enable for new stuff to be done.

Ok, so around 20 years ago we were fine with 56k, what do you think we need in another 20 years? Unless you wanna put down new lines every handful of years this is actually a good investment into the future.

I don't think this deserved to be down voted. While I can appreciate the idea that innovation drives advancement...I have the same honest question.

Asked another way: are there any current fringe use cases for residential users to make use of this kind of bandwidth?

*edit: ugh. Sorry, replied to the wrong comment.

Probably the mentioned 25 Gbit/s. At least now nobody needs that at home. I'm not even sure how one would hook up a computer to such a fast connection. certainly not with conventional ethernet.

2.5 gbps and 10 gbps ethernet is starting to appear in consumer-grade computers too, albeit mostly in either apple stuff or enthusiast grade gear.

10G Ethernet at least is not unusual for enthusiast-type stuff, and with the hardcore crowd I wouldn't be surprised to see some 25/40/100G kit - and this is clearly a hardcore enthusiast offering for now. E.g. IMHO doesn't make much sense unless you are hosting stuff at home etc.

I don't think we were ever "fine" with 56k, but I think we reached a good speed with 1Gb/s. It will be more than enough for most households until everything we do will scale up in resolution.

Well, 1gig is still somewhat rare here in Germany. Unless you live in a large city or you are fine with 5G as your line, its basically a far-away dream

Yes, I have 100/40 VDSL and it's honestly enough. How large should websites grow that I need 25 Gibt/s?

While I concure with that, there is more to the net than websites.

Gigabit is not needed for web browsing, but for:

- cloud storage, sharing and backup - at 40Mbit a remote site feels like a slow thumb drive where copying a 1GB folder of an image or video project to the cloud takes 5 minutes, at 1Gbit it feels like a modern hard drive where that folder takes 10 seconds and doesn't interrupt your workflow

- high res video streaming (3-4 people in your household streaming at 4K will overload your downlink at 100Mbit)

- high res video conferencing (3-4 people in your household being in zoom calls at the same time will likely overload your uplink at 40Mbit)

Imagine being a streamer. You cannot stream 4K with that speed.

Do you think the network gear will last 20 years?

I believe the fibers themselves will. I mean most of the country (Germany) is still running on copper from the 50s.

Their response to that comment pretty much was "people ask that every time, and every time it turns out someone just needs to start offering it for things to happen"

You are right about your question looking at the state of the matter right now.

However residential broadband for Internet access does not have to be all about ingress and consumption. There is a future where egress and peer to peer traffic is just as viable. Having a network where the nodes are at 25gbit/sec would be wholesome to say it mildly, and ridiculously modernized to put it plainly.

to load all the ads and trackers when browsing the web, especially the video ads

That's what I fear as well. Computers get more powerful -> programs waste more of that power. Internet gets faster -> websites grow in size as well.

To help with latency. The line will be quieter for longer periods meaning less congestion. Meaning when you want something it won't need to wait it'll feel instant.

Also, you'll have economy of scale. If every network kit was 25Gbit, then that gets cheaper for all.

Also, the cost of installing is usually the most expensive part, not the hardware. Why no future proof for the next 40 years.

Not only is it fast and inexpensive, it's also regular ethernet (no PON weirdness), so you can use any router you want – as long as it has an SFP28 port. ;)

I have 4GBit ostensibly, in Switzerland. But my WiFi is not fast enough for me to test.

It’s a great news but I’m a bit skeptical about the people (especially inside non working place) who can really have any benefit over 1 Gbbps connection at the moment. Due to Wi-Fi and Ethernet ports limits, but surely it’s future proof!

Hey - speak for yourself! I have a 10g network at home. My main pc, work laptop (docking station) and all my servers are on 10g. Less than $1000 for a 16 port sfp+ switch and cards.

I regularly max out my 1gbps connection with backups and other data transfers, would love to go to 3 or 5 gbps!

> I regularly max out my 1gbps connection

Regularly in frequency, sure, but how much on average? Would you notice if your backups took 1 hour instead of 10 minutes?

A watercooler regularly maxes out its water input, but no one getting a drink would notice if it filled its tank by 1 oz/sec or 2.

I certainly wouldn't mind faster, but I honestly don't notice much benefit from 250/250 over the 100/100 Mbps I had before.

But things certainly change and increasing capability always leads to someone using it for something (useless or not).

It seems that the other side rarely exceeds 100mbps, so it only matter when you either got many users or very specific workflow.

With many games approaching 100GB, I wouldn't mind 25 Gbps.

100GB downloaded over wifi or 1Gbps rj45 port wouldn’t make any difference over a 1Gbps connection, that’s the point here.

You are forgetting about the fact that you can have more computers and devices consuming at 1gbit per second.

…25 devices that are downloading at 1Gbps inside a residential house? Not impossible but…. =]

Quanta Costa?

about 70$ per month

That would be very affordable! (for the speed)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com