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A friend lives in a city with a lot of startups, a lot of technology companies and a research university that's been on the internet since before the DNS. He's

by Arnt 4y ago

A friend lives in a city with a lot of startups, a lot of technology companies and a research university that's been on the internet since before the DNS. He's on the waiting list for Starlink because the fastest residential connection he can get is 3Mbps. There's much fiber there, but also many streets where no fiber is available. AFAICT that kind of spottiness is the most common case and few cities have uniformly good coverage. I do hope 3Mbps is rare though.

devoutsalsa 4y ago
I don't believe this. A city full of startups can't be stuck w/ maximum 3Mbps Internet. Can it?
- Arnt 4y ago
  The city has much better options in some areas, but not in his street. It's in North Carolina, US, he lives closish to the UNC campus (if UNC has several campuses, then close to the one that was on the internet 40+ years ago).
  - valzam 4y ago
    Getting internet early is often a curse since companies priorities build outs where they have no coverage at all. That being said, 3 MB/s should get you very high on the 'to upgrade ' list...
  - sgerenser 4y ago
    No 5G home internet available? In most cases it’s a better alternative to StarLink if you have good coverage. Also surprised there’s no Spectrum cable, I thought they were available almost everywhere in the Triangle (assuming you mean UNC Chapel Hill).
- usrusr 4y ago
  Not the full city, just that particular part of the street where gp's friend happens to live. Crazy to use satellites where a last mile of fiber would do the job, or terrestrial beam link, or just a well-placed cell tower, but markets can be weird in edge cases.
Cthulhu_ 4y ago
You'd think there would be investors popping up left and right to improve it, because offering 500 Mbps in an area where you can only get 3 Mbps is sure to sell. Is this where the weird dichotomy between the US being on the one side very liberal for businesses yet on the other very restrictive? (the restrictive being protectionist practices from the established companies in this case)
- bobthepanda 4y ago
  The primary issue is * there isn’t any sort of provider like Openreach where all the ISPs share some portion of the network (in Openreach’s case, the last-mile network) so every ISP has to build every last inch to the home themselves * generally speaking, ISPs have to get permits from localities, which are often cash-strapped and thus looking to scrape as much money as they can from an unsympathetic sector
  - traceroute66 4y ago
    > there isn’t any sort of provider like Openreach Yeah, erm, mate ... don't get me started on Openscreech. TL;DR: They are not the panacea, ESPECIALLY when it comes to fibre. Openreach might sound good on paper, but boy does it really not work out well in practice.
  - postingawayonhn 4y ago
    > where all the ISPs share some portion of the network (in Openreach’s case, the last-mile network) so every ISP has to build every last inch to the home themselves There could be though if US regulators wanted too. In my country (New Zealand) for example the government did a deal during the switch from copper to fiber that regulated the network owners. A network owner would get exclusive rights to install their cables in a particular city and in return they would be prohibited from retail sales and would have to provide wholesale access to their network to ISPs at regulated prices. Now something like 90% of the country has access to at least gigabit fiber (up to 8 gigabit available in some areas) and a choice of a dozen or so ISPs.
    - 4y ago
imeron 4y ago
Why not just use a 100Mbs (4G) unlimited mobile service?
- mattlondon 4y ago
  Is latency competitive? 4g is quite laggy in terms of RTT. Not sure what sea-level starlink is like.
  - lxgr 4y ago
    It absolutely can be, but that depends on how congested/well managed the network is. I‘ve seen stable latencies under 20ms on some networks, but also absurd spikes of multiple seconds on others. (The same goes for cable/DOCSIS, by the way…)

by Arnt 4y ago

devoutsalsa 4y ago

I don't believe this. A city full of startups can't be stuck w/ maximum 3Mbps Internet. Can it?

Arnt 4y ago
The city has much better options in some areas, but not in his street. It's in North Carolina, US, he lives closish to the UNC campus (if UNC has several campuses, then close to the one that was on the internet 40+ years ago).
- valzam 4y ago
  Getting internet early is often a curse since companies priorities build outs where they have no coverage at all. That being said, 3 MB/s should get you very high on the 'to upgrade ' list...
- sgerenser 4y ago
  No 5G home internet available? In most cases it’s a better alternative to StarLink if you have good coverage. Also surprised there’s no Spectrum cable, I thought they were available almost everywhere in the Triangle (assuming you mean UNC Chapel Hill).
usrusr 4y ago
Not the full city, just that particular part of the street where gp's friend happens to live. Crazy to use satellites where a last mile of fiber would do the job, or terrestrial beam link, or just a well-placed cell tower, but markets can be weird in edge cases.

Cthulhu_ 4y ago

You'd think there would be investors popping up left and right to improve it, because offering 500 Mbps in an area where you can only get 3 Mbps is sure to sell. Is this where the weird dichotomy between the US being on the one side very liberal for businesses yet on the other very restrictive? (the restrictive being protectionist practices from the established companies in this case)

bobthepanda 4y ago
The primary issue is * there isn’t any sort of provider like Openreach where all the ISPs share some portion of the network (in Openreach’s case, the last-mile network) so every ISP has to build every last inch to the home themselves * generally speaking, ISPs have to get permits from localities, which are often cash-strapped and thus looking to scrape as much money as they can from an unsympathetic sector
- traceroute66 4y ago
  > there isn’t any sort of provider like Openreach Yeah, erm, mate ... don't get me started on Openscreech. TL;DR: They are not the panacea, ESPECIALLY when it comes to fibre. Openreach might sound good on paper, but boy does it really not work out well in practice.
- postingawayonhn 4y ago
  > where all the ISPs share some portion of the network (in Openreach’s case, the last-mile network) so every ISP has to build every last inch to the home themselves There could be though if US regulators wanted too. In my country (New Zealand) for example the government did a deal during the switch from copper to fiber that regulated the network owners. A network owner would get exclusive rights to install their cables in a particular city and in return they would be prohibited from retail sales and would have to provide wholesale access to their network to ISPs at regulated prices. Now something like 90% of the country has access to at least gigabit fiber (up to 8 gigabit available in some areas) and a choice of a dozen or so ISPs.
  - 4y ago

imeron 4y ago

Why not just use a 100Mbs (4G) unlimited mobile service?

mattlondon 4y ago
Is latency competitive? 4g is quite laggy in terms of RTT. Not sure what sea-level starlink is like.
- lxgr 4y ago
  It absolutely can be, but that depends on how congested/well managed the network is. I‘ve seen stable latencies under 20ms on some networks, but also absurd spikes of multiple seconds on others. (The same goes for cable/DOCSIS, by the way…)