GoNetspeed – a high-speed fiber internet service provider that has been breaking into the Connecticut market since 2018 – has begun to connect more than 4,000 locations in Berlin and New Britain, the company announced this week.
Representatives of the New York-based company said that 4,020 of the 4,150 locations are in Berlin. GoNetspeed recently finished fiber-to-home construction to more than 22,000 households in Fairfield, Bridgeport, Hamden, North Haven, Rocky Hill, and West Hartford.
The service provides high-speed internet for residential customers, and the company says it can customize speeds beyond Gigabit capability for businesses. Perhaps most market-disruptive difference in their service offerings are a combination of lower prices with higher capacity.
Starting at $50 per month, GoNetspeed offers data transfer speeds of 150 megabits per second (Mbps), 500 Mbps, and 1 Gigabit per second (Gbps) for residential customers – for both downloading and uploading. Upload speed has traditionally been offered by legacy cable TV and internet service providers at much slower rates than their downloads.
The limitation on upload speeds has made it difficult for people to upload their data or content in work-from-home situations.
“It’s fiber so the technology is as state-of-the-art as it is going to get,” spokeswoman Tracy Scheckel said, adding consumers can help the company direct where to expand next by filling out a crowdsourcing form. According to GoNetspeed’s website, when there is enough demand from an area, usually 10 percent of homes, the company will start building.
GoNetspeed was founded in 2017 and company representatives say its focus is on serving residential customers and small businesses in Connecticut.
Scheckel said the company works to keep their prices competitive with cable, but added they are not “cheap,” adding that customers receive local customer service and tech support. She said that in a few weeks, the company will release information about more towns it’s building in.
“We have plans at least through 2023 to keep expanding,” Scheckel said.
Scheckel said the company considers expansions in areas where certain criteria are met, including how densely populated the area is and if there is a need and ability for the technology to be installed.
“It’s most cost efficient to build aerially,” Scheckel said, referring to using utility polls for their fiber as opposed to an underground system.
Residents can visit www.gonetspeed.com/hartfordcountymap to see the areas in Hartford County in orange where service should be available by the end of the year, according to the company’s announcement.
GoNetspeed has been delivering high-speed fiber internet to more than 20 communities and passing over 70,000 homes and businesses in Hartford, New Haven, and Fairfield counties and surrounding areas in Connecticut.
To view maps of GoNetspeed serviceable areas and areas soon to be in service, visit www.gonetspeed.com.
In January, NetSpeed LLC, the New York-based company’s legal name, announced that it formed a partnership with Oak Hill Capital, thereby allowing NetSpeed to accelerate its expansion of its fiber network throughout the Northeastern U.S.
Oak Hill is an investor in the fiber-to-the-premises space and has investments that include Metronet, a leading fiber-to-the-premises operator based in the Midwestern U.S.; Vexus Fiber, a rapidly expanding fiber-to-the-premises provider in Texas; Race Communications, a fast-growing fiber-to-the-premises business in California; and separate agreements to invest in Otelco and in Ontario and Trumansburg Telephone Companies, two eastern U.S. broadband companies.
