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If I pay for unlimited data at XMbps, I expect to be able to use as much data as I want. If I cannot then ISPs should advertise more honestly. Plus, I'd be ver

If I pay for unlimited data at XMbps, I expect to be able to use as much data as I want. If I cannot then ISPs should advertise more honestly. Plus, I'd be very surprised in Comcast Business was actually using separate infrastructure.

mnd999 5y ago
ISPs should advertise more honestly, but if they started talking about contention ratios in their advertising the average consumer would rapidly lose interest. With business, it’s not separate infrastructure necessarily but the number of customers sharing the same infrastructure is significantly lower. This leads to more consistent speeds and less congestion. Edit: fuck you downvoters - this is comment is both accurate and helpful.
- goodpoint 5y ago
  > the average consumer would rapidly lose interest. On the contrary, in a lot of places most consumers complain about misleading claims about speed and capping. The average consumer understands that daily rates for a hotel room change based on season, day of the week, special events and room size. Paying variable data rates based on usage and guaranteed bandwidth is not more difficult.
- jacoblambda 5y ago
  It's not though. Sure what you say may be correct in some amount but it has little to do with the comment you responded to and isn't much more than excuse for why ISPs take advantage of their (largely) monopoly powers in the residential internet space. The reason you don't get a consistent speed and a guarantee as a residential ISP client isn't because of any of the reasons you mentioned. It's because ISPs can force you to pay for their service at whatever price they charge and no matter how bad it is. The internet could be out for 8 hours a day, you could get sub-dialup speeds consistently, you simply can't connect to some services for some inexplicable reason, or your packet loss could be so bad that you get kicked from services and pages constantly. Guess what, you are still going to pay for it because what's the alternative? No internet at all or satellite internet that goes out whenever a cloud is in the sky and that alots you 1GB a month at 56kbps for 200USD/month. No matter what a residential ISP does, they will still get their money and even if you service is complete trash you'll grin and bare it lest you end up without access at all. That's the reason we don't get consistent service with residential plans and it won't change until something happens to break us out of the monopolistic regulatory captured environment we are in.
  - mnd999 5y ago
    Yes, the US residential market would definitely benefit from more competition. The model we have here is to separate the infrastructure from the service such that infrastructure providers lay fibre to homes and businesses and then sell wholesale to ISPs who sell service over the common fibre to consumers. It’s definitely better than the US model as there is competition between ISPs and they therefore have reason to apply pressure to get problems fixed. Infrastructure upgrades are still painfully slow as there is little competitive reason to upgrade the fibre (or fibre / copper VDSL in many places) as all the ISPs have little choice but use the infra provider for a certain area. Ideally you want more infra, but the cost of building out fibre networks is high, particularly if you’re only selling to 1-in-2 or 1-in-3 properties due to competition. That’s before you get to the politics and legals and lobbying you need to do to succeed in the US. I’m hopeful 5G will compete with broadband and give the providers the kick up the ass they need.
- varispeed 5y ago
  > ISPs should advertise more honestly, but if they started talking about contention ratios in their advertising the average consumer would rapidly lose interest. In short, they have to lie to get business? Why is that even legal?
echelon 5y ago
Your license probably doesn't have a provision for subletting.
- Nextgrid 5y ago
  Does screen-sharing and letting someone control your screen count as "subletting"? Does inviting someone to join your local Minecraft game (which internally starts a server and exposes it to the internet) count as subletting? If your ISP sells you a service of X Mbps (and if they want to be more precise, X packets per second and X total data transferred in a month) you should be able to use it for any purpose you want. The purpose or content of said packet don't suddenly make it take more network resources. If ISP's networks suddenly can't cope because people start using what they've paid for then it's on them and they need to price it accordingly and market it more honestly.

mnd999 5y ago

ISPs should advertise more honestly, but if they started talking about contention ratios in their advertising the average consumer would rapidly lose interest. With business, it’s not separate infrastructure necessarily but the number of customers sharing the same infrastructure is significantly lower. This leads to more consistent speeds and less congestion. Edit: fuck you downvoters - this is comment is both accurate and helpful.

goodpoint 5y ago
> the average consumer would rapidly lose interest. On the contrary, in a lot of places most consumers complain about misleading claims about speed and capping. The average consumer understands that daily rates for a hotel room change based on season, day of the week, special events and room size. Paying variable data rates based on usage and guaranteed bandwidth is not more difficult.
jacoblambda 5y ago
It's not though. Sure what you say may be correct in some amount but it has little to do with the comment you responded to and isn't much more than excuse for why ISPs take advantage of their (largely) monopoly powers in the residential internet space. The reason you don't get a consistent speed and a guarantee as a residential ISP client isn't because of any of the reasons you mentioned. It's because ISPs can force you to pay for their service at whatever price they charge and no matter how bad it is. The internet could be out for 8 hours a day, you could get sub-dialup speeds consistently, you simply can't connect to some services for some inexplicable reason, or your packet loss could be so bad that you get kicked from services and pages constantly. Guess what, you are still going to pay for it because what's the alternative? No internet at all or satellite internet that goes out whenever a cloud is in the sky and that alots you 1GB a month at 56kbps for 200USD/month. No matter what a residential ISP does, they will still get their money and even if you service is complete trash you'll grin and bare it lest you end up without access at all. That's the reason we don't get consistent service with residential plans and it won't change until something happens to break us out of the monopolistic regulatory captured environment we are in.
- mnd999 5y ago
  Yes, the US residential market would definitely benefit from more competition. The model we have here is to separate the infrastructure from the service such that infrastructure providers lay fibre to homes and businesses and then sell wholesale to ISPs who sell service over the common fibre to consumers. It’s definitely better than the US model as there is competition between ISPs and they therefore have reason to apply pressure to get problems fixed. Infrastructure upgrades are still painfully slow as there is little competitive reason to upgrade the fibre (or fibre / copper VDSL in many places) as all the ISPs have little choice but use the infra provider for a certain area. Ideally you want more infra, but the cost of building out fibre networks is high, particularly if you’re only selling to 1-in-2 or 1-in-3 properties due to competition. That’s before you get to the politics and legals and lobbying you need to do to succeed in the US. I’m hopeful 5G will compete with broadband and give the providers the kick up the ass they need.
varispeed 5y ago
> ISPs should advertise more honestly, but if they started talking about contention ratios in their advertising the average consumer would rapidly lose interest. In short, they have to lie to get business? Why is that even legal?

echelon 5y ago

Your license probably doesn't have a provision for subletting.

Nextgrid 5y ago
Does screen-sharing and letting someone control your screen count as "subletting"? Does inviting someone to join your local Minecraft game (which internally starts a server and exposes it to the internet) count as subletting? If your ISP sells you a service of X Mbps (and if they want to be more precise, X packets per second and X total data transferred in a month) you should be able to use it for any purpose you want. The purpose or content of said packet don't suddenly make it take more network resources. If ISP's networks suddenly can't cope because people start using what they've paid for then it's on them and they need to price it accordingly and market it more honestly.