Can you expand on when competition came to Seattle and how? I've been using Condo Internet (now Wave Broadband) for something close to 5-6 years. When was the tipping point in terms of competition?
It happened because a former mayor (Ed Murray, who has since left office after a personal scandal) made it easier for ISPs to build out their networks and removed homeowners and neighborhood groups from the process which previously allowed them to block things like communications boxes on sidewalks.
At the time, a bunch of local columnists moaned about this "corporate giveaway"[1] -- but it's pretty clear in retrospect it was the right move.
1. https://www.seattletimes.com/business/mayors-centurylink-giv...
Service has been great, pricing is even cheaper than WaveG (I pay about $50/mo for their gig fiber offering), no contracts or any other lock-in (unless you pick the option to pay for the whole year upfront for a small discount). It definitely does feel like there is a good amount of real competition in Seattle now.
That’s the most options I have ever had in my entire life for an ISP. We’re with WaveG and have no reason to switch but the fact that I have multiple fiber options if I need to makes me really happy.
In Brooklyn, I couldn’t get FiOS in my building even though the building across the street and next door could do it. Something with the zoning and no matter how hard we (and Verizon) tried, nada. The upshot was Cablevision was an exceptional ISP (let me run a server out of the apartment as part of the written TOS, which was incredible), but it was still slower than FiOS.
In Atlanta, my parents’ house was prewired for fiber and gigabit but they have been stuck with not even the fastest available cable because of ISP tie-ups. It’s painful and they have zero choice.
This is no longer the case since Altice purchased cable vision/optimum. They jacked up the prices and Andy reduced quality of service.
Then I moved to a different unit where the absolute fastest option was 20/3 DSL for $70/mo.
Thankfully I’m now on Gigabit cable, but I can’t wait to get off Xfinity for something better.
Accused! Not proven. Murray maintains he has never abused anyone.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Murray_(Washington_politici...
However, one should not be saying someone IS a vile thing when they've only been ACCUSED (and not convicted) of being a vile thing.
Condo was historically only available in a small number of buildings very close to the Westin building downtown (site of the Seattle Internet Exchange). It is slightly broader now, but only slightly.
Here's a big old PDF of Seattle area internet service (2019)[1]. Most of Seattle is CenturyLink + Comcast. The second biggest portion is Comcast-only. Wave covers very little of the city.
[1]: https://www.seattle.gov/tech/initiatives/broadband/gigabit-a...
I'm a Seattle native, down in the bay area now, and JUST got gigabit fiber. Couldn't be happier.
Seems like maybe 3 years ago when all the cable companies were able to compete without exclusivity by block?
In my condo building of 200+ units we have 5 providers now: - Wave broadband cable - Comcast cable - Wave G (10Gbps connection to the building) - Webpass Google Fiber (microwave to the building) - CenturyLink (DSL maybe?)
The bummer is outside the high-rise towers, there is not much competition in the neighborhoods and single family homes it seems.