Why You Can Trust CNET Ziply Fiber rolls out multi-gig service to 170,000 homes
Two- and five-gig Ziply Fiber plans are now available in 60 cities, with more on the way in Q2.
After a successful soft rollout of 2- and 5-gig internet plans in the Seattle suburb and Ziply Fiber hometown of Kirkland, Washington, the provider is extending its new multi-gig service to 170,000 homes across 60 cities throughout the Northwest.
Residents of select Ziply Fiber service areas in Idaho, Oregon and Washington can now sign up for symmetrical download and upload speeds of 2Gbps, starting at $120 per month or the super-speedy 5-gig service for $300 per month. As with all Ziply internet plans, multi-gig service comes with unlimited data and no contract requirements.
Existing Ziply customers who want to upgrade their plan, where available, may need a new ONT device (similar to a modem, but for fiber internet) to accommodate for the faster speeds, but otherwise, the upgrade is available "at the push of a button."
Locating local internet providers
Ziply now fastest provider in the Northwest
With the exception of Google Fiber and Xfinity, none of the top internet providers have dared to push the internet speed limit past a single gig. Google Fiber offers a 2-gigabit plan throughout most service areas while a limited few Xfinity customers can sign up for 3 gigs, but 5? That's virtually unheard of.
It's possible that there are smaller, hyper-local fiber providers somewhere with a 5-gig plan or even faster in the Northwest region (there are actually hundreds of fiber internet providers in the US), but Ziply is the first in the area among regional and national residential providers -- those with a customer base of more than 1% of the US population -- to deliver these speeds.
Locating local internet providers
And the speeds are real
"OK, but what will I actually get?" is a fair question when signing up for high-speed internet, but Ziply Fiber CEO Harold Zeitz assures CNET that customers can expect to get what they pay for.
"We make an effort to ensure we deliver these speeds to the home…and the network really does deliver these speeds on a consistent basis," Zeitz said. He also noted that one of the first Ziply multi-gig customers was "stunned" by the actual tested speeds and was "uploading and downloading just because they could."
But how will the network handle more users tapping into multi-gig service in more locations? According to the company, Ziply customers won't have to worry about that, either. "Every person is able to get their measured speed capacity. We manage the network such that all endpoints have no congestion," Zeitz said, adding that reliability and speed consistency is "why we built the network the way that we did."
The fastest speeds, where you'd least expect them
Where would you expect to find the fastest home internet speeds? The Big Apple, or maybe Los Angeles? How about Albion, Washington, with a population of less than 1,000? That's just one of the Ziply service areas now eligible for multi-gig service.
As a regional provider, Ziply focuses on the local area it serves, which happens to include many suburban and rural communities across Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington -- places where any high-speed connection may be unexpected, let alone the fastest residential speeds in the country.
Zeitz hopes that by bringing faster speeds to these communities, it will help enable people to live wherever they want, whether that means returning to a small hometown or relocating to a newly revitalized area. "I think we'll see this equalization across the entire country of where people can live and work. It's a stunning change for a town when they have all the capacity that they would need for work or home."
Where is Ziply multi-gig service available?
In addition to parts of Kirkland, Washington, Ziply Fiber's new multi-gig service is now available in select areas of:
- Idaho – Blanchard, Bonners Ferry, Coeur d'Alene, Hayden and Weippe
- Oregon – Beaverton, Cornelius, Dayton, Dundee, Forest Grove, Hillsboro, Lafayette, Lake Oswego, McMinnville, Newberg, Portland, Sherwood, Tigard, Tualatin and Wilsonville
- Washington – Albion, Bothell, Brier, Camas, Edmonds, Everett, Garfield, Kenmore, Lynnwood, Marysville, Oakesdale, Palouse, Pullman, Redmond, Rosalia, Sedro-Woolley, Snohomish, Sultan, Tekoa and Woodland
More multi-gig locations coming in Q2
Ziply intends to roll out its multi-gig service to "all (fiber) addresses by mid Q2 of 2022 and every new market thereafter." That's big news for the roughly 1.5 million residents currently eligible for Ziply Fiber in Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington, along with anyone who may see Ziply service come to their area in the near future.