The Evolution of Home Internet
We aren’t just an ISP; we are the engineers who helped build the internet in the Pacific Northwest back in the 90s. We remember the screech of the modem and the waiting game.
It’s no secret that the internet has changed. But while technology has evolved, the “Big Tech” monopolies have spent the last decade resting on their laurels, trying to squeeze profit out of outdated wires. Let’s look at how we got here, and why fiber is the only technology tough enough for Washington geography.
The Stone Age
If you were online in 1989, you remember the struggle. The internet was a digital wild west, and getting connected meant hijacking your home phone line.
The first commercial providers, like “The World,” offered speeds capped at 56.6 kbps. It was agonizingly slow, but it was the start of a revolution. We were there, building the infrastructure when “The Cloud” was just a weather term. It was innovative for its time, but looking back, it was like trying to drain Puget Sound with a straw.
The DSL Era
In the mid-90s, the industry tried to squeeze more speed out of the existing phone grid. Enter DSL (Digital Subscriber Line).
It was faster than dial-up, moving data at speeds up to 100 Mbps. It was a leap forward for urban users in Seattle and Bellevue, but it had a fatal flaw: it relied on copper telephone wiring that was never designed for high-speed data. It was a band-aid solution, but for a while, it worked.
The Rise of Cable Broadband and its Stagnation
This is where the industry got stuck.
In 1996, cable broadband emerged. The massive cable conglomerates realized they could use their existing coaxial TV lines to deliver internet. This was great for their shareholders because they didn’t have to build anything new—they just repurposed the copper wires already in the ground.
The Problem: Cable was designed for TV—sending signals to your house, not receiving them from you. This created the asymmetrical trap we still see today: fast download speeds, but strangled upload speeds (often capped around 35 Mbps).
While the “Big Tech” conglomerates have spent the last 20 years extracting profit from these aging copper networks, they haven’t solved the physics problem. They are still selling you 1996 architecture in a 2025 world.
Fiber Optic Internet, the Next Evolutionary Step
This isn’t just an “upgrade.” This is a different species of technology.
Fiber optic internet replaces copper wires with hair-thin strands of glass. Instead of sending electricity (which degrades over distance), we send light.
- The Physics of Distance: Copper signals die out after about a mile. Fiber signals can travel over 25 miles without losing strength.
- The End of the Bottleneck: Because light moves faster and carries more data than electricity, fiber allows for symmetrical speeds.
- 10 Gig Reality: While cable struggles to hit 1 Gig, Connect Northwest fiber delivers 10 Gig symmetrical speeds—that is 10,000 Mbps upload and download.
The Future is Already Here
The history of the internet is a story of moving from phone lines to TV lines, and finally, to light.
The big national carriers want to keep you on the old “cable” standard because it is cheaper for them. But we believe in building infrastructure that lasts. Fiber is the only future-proof technology. It provides the bandwidth for the next generation of 8K streaming, VR, and whatever comes next.
Don’t Pay for Old Archaic Internet
We are building the network of the future right here in Washington. Pre-register your address now to get the alert when 10 Gig symmetrical fiber is ready to order at your door.
