The main reason for 2.5g is for digital video (2.5gbit will allow do 2 1080i 2110 streams), and especially the increasing numbers of wifi6e APs that do >1gbit but nowhere near 10g
> Nobody cares until we need 10 gigabit internet access (which will probably never happen).
For what it's worth, my ISP gives me 5Gbps down/700Mbps up for ~40 euros a month which includes a bunch of TV channels and discounts for Netflix and Disney+.
They also have an 8Gbps down / 8Gbps up plan for ~60 euros, also including a ton of extra things.
In my case, all rooms are cabled with a weird electrical standard that should get me 10G Ethernet (and does 2.5G without any issue). I'm not going to drill holes to pull my own fibre all around the place when I have perfectly good Ethernet connectivity.
Also, while 10G SFP+ NICs are vastly more available than Ethernet 10G ones, switches seem to be cheaper with 2.5/5/10G Ethernet ports than full on SFP+, unless you buy recycled Enterprise gear which would blow your power efficiency argument out of the water.
> But have you invested in 5Gbps+ networking gear to actually take advantage of the offer? 10 Gbps Nics have become super affordable (~20$) by the way.
The 8/8 plan comes with a router that has WiFi 7 (theoretical max 46Gbps, but who knows in reality, it's not really out yet), an SFP+ port, and 4x2.5Gbps Ethernet ports. The one I have only has one 2.5Gbps Ethernet, so that's the Internet speed at which my home network caps out at.
Yes, there's 2.5 gigabit on some consumer hardware, but it's still kind of rare.
Also who is excited about a 2.5x speedup after 20 years? Nobody cares until we need 10 gigabit internet access (which will probably never happen).