I currently use UTOPIA for my fiber connection. Their model is that they charge for the infrastructure, and then they have many ISPs on top that provide competing internet services.
Pricing
As a snapshot comparison (primarily for my own notes), here’s a comparison of pricing for residential service, on the tier of 1Gbps download and upload (symmetric). This is the tier I’m currently on.
| ISP | Price ($) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Centra | 43.95 | Appear more honest on their Broadband label (showing 841Mbps/884Mbps down/up, rather than 1000Mbps). |
| ETS | 45.00 | Up to 10Gbps. |
| Fusion Networks | 45.00 | 1Gb is their fastest plan. |
| 3wave | 48.00 | |
| SenaWave | 48.00 | Very sparse on details. |
| Voonami | 48.95 | Comes with a free static IP on request. Also offers colo services. 2.5 Gbps fastest. |
| SumoFiber | 49.95 | Appear slightly more honest, stating 980 Mbps up/down. |
| IntelliPop | 49.95 | |
| ConnectFast | 53.95 | Only a single plan: 1Gb |
| FiberNet | 53.95 | 1Gb is their fastest plan, but they have infra (i.e., offers colo services). |
| XMission | 54.00 | Runs an extra firewall layer than can break some websites. |
| Miles Broadband | 54.00 | |
| WiFiPros | 55.00 | I dislike the company name. |
| Advanced Stream | 55.00 | 10 TB data cap, others are unlimited. Honest with specific speeds. |
| Brigham | 58.95 | Wordpress site, sloppy errors like discrepancies in pricing. |
| InfoWest | 80.00 | Unclear to me if this $80 includes UTOPIA’s $30. Probably? |
| Beehive Broadband | N/A | Hard to find pricing is a dark pattern. |
| Rise Broadband | N/A | Couldn’t find price. |
| Fastel | N/A | Sketchily sparse website and no pricing. Dark patterns. |
At some point, I want to go through and learn more about their nuances. For example, XMission has an annoying trait of running their own firewall, which breaks websites occasionally. But, they also run their own datacenters and have some nice peering agreements that likely improve latency and performance.
Here’s a UTOPIA-provided comparison sheet, too. There is some discrepancy in the pricing and the ISPs themselves, though.