[bruxis]

I'm not sure where you have this impression from, but I can assure you that in many non-urban areas getting fiber (hikari) is a non-option.

Many folks resort to LTE or WiMax to compensate, which has poor performance in general and even worse in poor weather.

For context, even in Tokyo, you would be surprised at the number of apartment buildings that come with shared 100Mbit lines for 30+ units, with no way of installing faster direct lines (in large part due to owner/agency refusal).

[numpad0]

It’s NTT policy or something to lay only single 1Gbps fiber per building, ever, so if you’re living in a single family home with nice front yard you’re forced to share the fiber with — no one else. But for 30 units apartment your connection is at mercy of 25 kids trying to download Apex Legends in background while taking remote schooling classes.

If you’re desperate find a place that already has or allows Sony Nuro installation. They lay fibers given owners’ permission, whereas NTT won’t and just send you a Fast Ethernet VDSL modem(with a blue Cat.5 8P4C cable to match!)

[fomine3]

No. 1Gbps FTTH is very common choice even in rural area. Fibre covers 98.3% of family in 2020 [1], thanks to NTT Flets. Sometimes FTTH internet in rural residence is better than VDSL or crap internet service in urban apartment because of some apartments won't allow to sign up another fibre line instead of those crap.

[1] https://www.soumu.go.jp/main_content/000680621.pdf

[3np]

> For context, even in Tokyo, you would be surprised at the number of apartment buildings that come with shared 100Mbit lines for 30+ units, with no way of installing faster direct lines (in large part due to owner/agency refusal).

This is almost always the owner/agency actually. The above discussion is in context of being the owner.