Last year I had my first run-in with Verizon's FiOS internet service. I had heard much about it and thought it was the best thing since sliced bread as it was the first application of Fiber-To-The-Home available to many (albeit FiOS is still not in that many cities). FiOS service comes in various flavors but the key selling point is that customers get a fat pipe compared to most Cable/ADSL offerings.
I had come to live with the fact that Comcast was going to be my ISP just about forever until FiOS made its way down to the Southeast. When I moved into my new apartment a few days ago I was surprised to hear that Comcast was not available as an ISP in my building, but they offered phone and TV services. I asked around the building and was given a flyer for Purdigital.net. Purdigital also goes by the name of DirecPath and Biltmore Communications. They provide fiber connections to large residence communities/high-rises.
I signed up for their only Internet connection, rated at 10Mbps. After I got connected, I ran a few speed tests to see what kind of connection I was working with. I was a rather surprised when I saw the results.
After that I began uploading things to Flickr and Amazon S3 to make sure that the connection wasn't just spiking/boosting for a few seconds. Fortunately it wasn't and I was able to sustain downloads exceeding 3.5MB/sec and uploads around 2MB/sec.
Unfortunately, DirecPath's Internet services seem to be limited to particular residences and won't be offered nationwide anytime soon. It's just what I've been looking for though. With such a connection, I can utilize online storage much more readily rather than only storing important files.
What would you do with a faster Internet connection? I have been considering something like a remote iTunes server so I can listen to my library wherever I am and not have to worry about taking up space on my laptop with a large music library.