Home Internet In Las Vegas Is About To Get Much Cheaper, Faster

At first there was dial-up internet. Then cable internet took over. It was fast (for the time), relatively inexpensive and constant connection. But as the years have gone on, the price for home internet has skyrocketed. Las Vegas has seen the worst of it, with much of the city covered by just one company. You "cut the cord" to save cash, but the streaming services you replaced them with are running into the data cap that was added a while back. If only there was more competition and a cheaper solution?

When Google Fiber launched in back in 2011, they brought something unheard of to Kansas City: fast, cheap internet. For $70 a month, you would get 1 gig internet both downstream (for you Netflix watchers) and upstream (for content creators). At the time, the whole industry was pretty slow, but Google entering the arena made the business take notice. At least, where they appeared.

Google Fiber is now in select markets and after teasing that they would come to the valley, they have dropped a date. The internet service provider expects to be in "Metro Las Vegas" (you have hope, North Las Vegas and Henderson) by mid-2025. They are taking an interest list right now. Like CenturyLink's fiber internet, Cox Fiber and AT&T Fiber's rollouts before it, expect the product to be available in small swaths of the valley to start.

There's nothing wrong with a little competition. In Cranston, Rhode Island, for instance, Cox has a major competitor in the city. There you can receive Cox 500 Mbps download/10 Mbps upload internet for $59.99 a month. No special, no contract.

Why? Because Verizon FiOS is selling symmetrical fiber internet (500 Mbps download and upload) in the same neighborhood for $69.99 a month.

Here in Las Vegas, the same Cox 500 Mbps plan (with 50 Mbps upload) costs a staggering $90 a month. The difference is a lack of competition. The more companies that can provide you a service and compete, the lower the prices are bound to get.

Google Fiber's $70 a month for 1 gig plan they initially launched with in 2011 remains at $70 today - with no data cap. With Google Fiber entering the market, a serious price competitor is coming. Which is good news for all of our wallets, and has the old guard "streaming" mad.

With the Oscars fast approaching, streamers are steadily adding nominated films to their platforms, and we are here for it. Nominated for 13 Oscars, Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer will be available to stream on February 16 on Peacock. Oppenheimer follows the story of physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer (played by Cillian Murphy), who was appointed to work on the top-secret Manhattan Project during World War II. Oppenheimer and a team of scientists spent years developing and designing the atomic bomb, to find their work has come to fruition on July 16, 1945 (Trinity), as they witness the world's first nuclear explosion, forever changing the course of history. Nolan's other features will be made available on the streamer earlier on the first of the month, including his debut film, Memento, and the award-winning Dunkirk.

Other than that, highly-anticipated series are also coming out in February. The latest adaptation of Mr. and Mrs. Smith will hit Prime Video, starring Donald Glover and Maya Erskine in the first season of the romantic action drama. The entirety of the first season drops at once on February 2. February is Black History Month, and the new Genius: MLK/X anthology series starring Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Aaron Pierre as Malcolm X will stream on February 2 on Hulu and Disney+. It's a dramatization of the formative years and parallel struggles of the two iconic civil rights activists. For fans of the beloved original Nickelodeon animated series, the live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender will come to Netflix on February 22.

As we previously reported, Sofia Vergara's dramatic debut as real-life Colombian cartel boss Griselda Blanco is already streaming on Netflix. The Modern Family alum looks completely unrecognizable in the Griselda miniseries, which is six one-hour episodes long. Griselda tells the fictionalized account of the rise and fall of the "Godmother of Cocaine" during the violent drug wars in Miami in the '70s and '80s.

Keep scrolling to see the hottest films and shows coming to Netflix, Hulu, Max, Prime Video, Peacock, Paramount+ and other streaming services in February.

This animated fantasy film is based on the children’s book series of the same name by Laurence Yep. The Nickelodeon film features the voices of Henry Golding, Lucy Liu, Sandra Oh, Bowen Yang, and Michelle Yeoh. The story follows a young boy in San Francisco who meets a talking tiger named Mr. Hu (Golding) and discovers he's the latest in a long line of guardians who protect an ancient phoenix from evildoers. It streams on February 2 on Paramount+.

We unfortunately say goodbye to Larry David’s hilarious comedy series. The 12th and final season of Curb Your Enthusiasm will stream on Max on February 4. The series premiered in 2000, and is based on a version of David on the improvised series. His comedy is genius and he tends to say the most out of pocket things to people, that we sometimes wish we had the audacity to say out loud. Most episodes center around his complete disregard of society's expectations or his simple ignorance of things.

The latest Marvel superhero film makes its streaming debut on Disney+ on February 7. The Marvels unites Carol Danvers, AKA Captain Marvel (Brie Larson), Captain Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) and Kamala Khan AKA, Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani), who have been entangled with Captain Marvel's power. Despite their reluctance to work with each other, and Ms. Marvel's over-eagerness to work with her idol, they are forced to team up as "the Marvels" after they begin swapping places with each other every time they use their powers. Samuel L. Jackson returns to reprise his role as Nick Fury, with the film's version of Fury to be much more easygoing than the hardened version from the Disney+ miniseries Secret Invasion.

A new season of our favorite mockumentary series returns to Hulu on February 8. After the writers and actors strikes, fans of the comedy show had to wait nearly a year for season three to be on television again. The award-winning series stars Quinta Brunson, Tyler James Williams, Lisa Ann Walter, Chris Perfetti, and Sheryl Lee Ralph as the group of passionate teachers dedicated to their students and school, their wild principal, played by Janelle James, and the janitor (William Stanford Davis) round out the recurring cast members.

Gina Rodriguez and Damon Wayans Jr. star in the romantic comedy dropping on Valentine's Day on Netflix. A New York sportswriter named Mack (Rodriguez) spends her time making hook-up schemes alongside Adam (Wayans Jr.), her best friend. However, when Mack unexpectedly falls for a fling, she must go from playing the field to playing for keeps. Rodriguez is known for her starring role in the Jane the Virgin series and her Someone Great rom-com from 2019. Wayans Jr. is known for his starring role in the New Girl series and the comedy film 2014 Let's Be Cops.

Kelly Rowland stars as a criminal defense attorney in Tyler Perry’s steamy legal thriller on February 23 on Netflix. She agrees to defend a seductive artist (Trevante Rhodes) accused of murdering his girlfriend. But when desire take hold, things get hot… and dangerous. “This idea came to me because I love all of those older thrillers from the ’80s and ’90s,” Perry told Tudum. “It was fun to explore the best and worst of humanity through the genre of an exotic thriller.” Rhodes is known for his starring roles in 2016's Moonlight and 2018's Bird Box.