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Not only are the incumbents well protected, but they are increasingly few. 2 years ago I had 300 Mbps cable service at home via Time Warner Cable, then they we

Not only are the incumbents well protected, but they are increasingly few. 2 years ago I had 300 Mbps cable service at home via Time Warner Cable, then they were bought by Spectrum. Now I have 150 Mbps service. I still live in the same place and I'm still using the same cable modem (one I own, so as to avoid the ridiculous rental fees) I used back then, but 300 Mbps was simply killed as an option. I can't even pay more for it. Google Fiber may have been a useful gambit to increase the pace of rollout of other telecom's high speed offerings, but I would bet good money that it will be a very short-term play with erosion of net neutrality and further consolidation of the telecom market quickly wiping out the benefits.

walrus01 8y ago
Technical POV: 300Mbps might have been possible two years ago because there were fewer high bandwidth customers on your segment of the DOCSIS3 network. With increased channel bonding, it's now possible to do gigabit downstream over cable. For an example, Google "24x8 docsis3 modem". You may have something like an 8x4 modem. It is an intentionally oversubscribed shared access medium on the copper you're connected to, so it will only support a finite number of 300Mbps customers. It will support more 150Mbps customers on the same segment. The upstream still has to be highly asymmetrical because they're allocating rf channels asymmetrically. The capacity of one segment of coax is still a great deal less than a GPON network, nevermind active Ethernet.
- jjeaff 8y ago
  You'd think by now they would finally start having a bit more upstream traffic so they could even out the assymetry a bit. But here I am on my 500mbps down, 30mbps up connection.
  - walrus01 8y ago
    In one place I have 225 down, 6.5 up. Annoying as hell trying to upload a 4K video to YouTube, or scp it somewhere.
- mtgx 8y ago
  In other countries, speeds continue to increase, even as the user base grows over the years. So this is kind of a BS argument. ISPs should be investing more into their infrastructures. Instead they use the money for buyouts and to pay shareholder dividends.
bogomipz 8y ago
I'm curious did Spectrum send you a letter after the acquisition explaining that your service was being halved? Did the price go down with it or are you just paying more for less? This is the first I have heard of this.

walrus01 8y ago

Technical POV: 300Mbps might have been possible two years ago because there were fewer high bandwidth customers on your segment of the DOCSIS3 network. With increased channel bonding, it's now possible to do gigabit downstream over cable. For an example, Google "24x8 docsis3 modem". You may have something like an 8x4 modem. It is an intentionally oversubscribed shared access medium on the copper you're connected to, so it will only support a finite number of 300Mbps customers. It will support more 150Mbps customers on the same segment. The upstream still has to be highly asymmetrical because they're allocating rf channels asymmetrically. The capacity of one segment of coax is still a great deal less than a GPON network, nevermind active Ethernet.

jjeaff 8y ago
You'd think by now they would finally start having a bit more upstream traffic so they could even out the assymetry a bit. But here I am on my 500mbps down, 30mbps up connection.
- walrus01 8y ago
  In one place I have 225 down, 6.5 up. Annoying as hell trying to upload a 4K video to YouTube, or scp it somewhere.
mtgx 8y ago
In other countries, speeds continue to increase, even as the user base grows over the years. So this is kind of a BS argument. ISPs should be investing more into their infrastructures. Instead they use the money for buyouts and to pay shareholder dividends.

bogomipz 8y ago

I'm curious did Spectrum send you a letter after the acquisition explaining that your service was being halved? Did the price go down with it or are you just paying more for less? This is the first I have heard of this.