By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
mizzou_guy on 21 April 2016
Edit Thread
Soundwave said:
mizzou_guy said:
Doesn't America have the worst internet infrastructure of the 1st world countries? Do you realize how long it's going to take to upgrade all of America's internet offerings so that everyone here can have access to speeds like that? There is no way the US will be ready for a streaming based device like this in the next 5 years. It's fine for things like Netflix, because latency isn't a problem when you're passively viewing something, but if you have to controller-responsive speeds, then it's going to take some time to get there. I don't see Sony or anyone making the move to streaming-only consoles for at least a decade.

It's improving rapidly because Google Fiber has lit a fire under AT&T and Comcast's sorry asses by offering Google Fiber in several markets, that scared the shit out of AT&T and Comast and now they are starting to rapidly offer ultra high speed internet and the competetion is going to lead to an inevitable scenario where it's available everywhere and the price comes down. 

For example, AT&T is offering Gigapower in 38 more US cities this year:

http://www.computerworld.com/article/3012268/networking/atandt-gigapower-fiber-expanding-to-38-more-cities.html

It's actually not unfeasible that all major US cities will have fiber or ultra high speed in 4-5 years time, by 10 years the entire country will have it. 

I see what you're saying, but Google Fiber is only currenlty available in 4 cities with only 7 more cities for sure being expanded into:

https://fiber.google.com/about/

AT&T has many more cities, but if you look at this map, there is A LOT of the country left out, even in the same states where several cities are being developed for fiber:

https://www.att.com/shop/internet/gigapower/coverage-map.html?partner=LinkShare&siteId=je6NUbpObpQ-Tf9WUB0q7MOQZIY_biOCWQ

Comcast also has several cities currently in their fiber market, but again,  A LOT of land in between is not covered:

http://business.comcast.com/about-us/our-network

You have to remember that America is composed of a lot more land than just cities, and there are millions of people whom are not going to be receiving these fiber networks in the near future.  As I said before, I'd guess that it'll be at least a decade before people outside of these major cities can affordably obtain fiber speeds with their home networks.  Console companies are not going to just mark-off non-city residents from their consumer bases and focus on a console that is streaming only, as they would be losing way too much profit by limiting potential customers with that business model.