Idaho Falls Fiber Launches 2.5 Gbps Home Internet Starting at $91.95

Q: Idaho Falls just unleashed 2.5 Gig municipal internet, but is your home's outdated wiring secretly bottlenecking these massive new speeds?

Yes—your home network can absolutely bottleneck Idaho Falls’ new 2.5 Gig fiber, but the problem is usually not the fiber itself. The city’s service reaches the home through an ONT, and the biggest speed limits are typically inside the house: router ports, switches, device network cards, wall jacks, and old adapters. A common choke point is hardware that only supports 1 Gigabit Ethernet. If your router’s WAN port, any switch in the path, or your computer’s Ethernet port is capped at 1 Gbps, you will not see more than about 1 Gbps even if you buy the 2.5 Gig plan. Cheap USB 2.0 Ethernet adapters can cut speeds far further, sometimes to a few hundred Mbps. A damaged cable or bad switch port can even force a link down to 100 Mbps. The wiring itself may be less of a problem than many homeowners fear. In many homes, existing Cat5e or Cat6 Ethernet can carry 2.5 Gbps, especially over normal residential distances, thanks to multi-gig Ethernet standards. That means many households will not need full rewiring. But very old Cat5, poor-quality terminations, worn patch cords, or questionable in-wall jacks can still hold performance back. Residents upgrading to 2.5 Gig should check the full chain from ONT to router to device. The router needs a 2.5G-capable WAN port, and any wired device that wants those speeds needs a 2.5G port too. Otherwise, Idaho Falls Fiber can deliver the bandwidth, but your home network may quietly cap it well below the advertised tier.

1 articles · Updated · Post Register · Aug 27

Idaho Falls Fiber has added 2.5 Gbps residential service, offering 2,500 Mbps download and upload speeds to homes on the city’s municipally owned fiber network.
Prices start at $91.95, with the new tier aimed at households running multiple connected devices, home offices, streaming, gaming and large file transfers.
The service rides on an open-access model in which Idaho Falls Fiber owns and maintains the infrastructure while participating internet providers sell plans directly to customers.
Construction of the citywide network finished in November 2024 across the Idaho Falls Power service area, and the new speed tier extends that buildout as demand for higher-capacity connections grows.

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Post Register8h ago

Idaho Falls Fiber Launches 2.5 Gigabit Internet Service

Idaho Falls just unleashed 2.5 Gig municipal internet, but is your home's outdated wiring secretly bottlenecking these massive new speeds?

As Idaho Falls pioneers open-access fiber, could this city-owned infrastructure model finally break the monopoly of traditional internet providers nationwide?

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Center100%

Post Register8h ago

Idaho Falls Fiber Launches 2.5 Gigabit Internet Service

Idaho Falls Fiber Launches 2.5 Gbps Home Internet Starting at $91.95

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