House Hunting? This Site Touts Real-Estate Listings With Verified Broadband

pcmag.com:

A new site aims to tackle a problem that in a more logical universe would not exist: real-estate listings that offer only vague details about the internet service available at an abode or don’t even address that issue.

Fiber Homes(Opens in a new window) promises less-chancy connectivity details in house listings. The Columbia, S.C.-based site works with fiber-optic broadband providers to verify the access available at a home. It highlights matching listings with a “certified” label and details about the broadband plans available, in some cases with sign-up discounts, so home shoppers shouldn’t have to check a future home’s address at multiple providers’ sites to see which one offers the fastest connection. 

Internet access delivered via optical fiber represents first-class home broadband, supporting equally high upload and download speeds and essentially unlimited capacity to any one residence. Fiber providers consistently lead PCMag’s Fastest ISPs list.

“For it to be a certified fiber address, it means we received the addresses directly from the provider and they confirmed that they indeed can serve it with fiber,” CEO Robert Gilbert wrote in an email. “So the ~2 million addresses we have certified have come directly from approximately 90 different providers from around the country.”

So far, those providers—which pay Fiber Homes for the certification and the publicity unless they choose a free-listing option that doesn’t include sales tools—are on the smaller side, with the biggest ones being Allo(Opens in a new window), Ting(Opens in a new window), and Point Broadband(Opens in a new window).

“This is a unique opportunity for the smaller community-based fiber providers that have historically been at a disadvantage,”