4 ms·

The UK is a bad example because Openreach have done a shit job rolling out fibre. The govt bottled it and stopped them fully separating from BT after lobbying.

The UK is a bad example because Openreach have done a shit job rolling out fibre. The govt bottled it and stopped them fully separating from BT after lobbying. NZ is a good example: our BT was actually forced to fully separate retail and wholesale businesses (Spark and Chorus). They have a national fibre network that operates as a utility and fibre internet is ubiquitous and cheap.

tialaramex 3y ago
I'm much less bothered about "fibre Internet". It's a bigger number, people like bigger numbers, but they generally don't matter very much. 1Gbps symmetric would be cheaper here than my current 40Mbps. But, it would come from a typical mediocre "CGNAT is fine for reading Facebook and watching Netflix" company, whereas my ISP gives me a /48 to put all my stuff in so I can use it from anywhere without some dubious tunnelling hack. A long time ago now, 1996, I moved into my first shared student house. We had Always On, because we were a household of nerds and we knew that's what we wanted. That's a shared (between maybe five people, more when girlfriends are in) 56kbps Internet link. But what matters isn't bandwidth it's the Always On nature of the connectivity. Within months, modern habits like searching for the answers to questions on the Web as a reflex, became normal in that house, because everybody had Internet all the time. Now, I'm not suggesting 56kbps is good enough in 2023. But I don't find I have ever wished for 1Gbps rather than 40Mbps. Not even "Sometimes I wonder if it's worth it". It just never arises as a consideration. 1Gbps is more, but more than plenty is just irrelevant. It's like I've never been bothered that my electricity supply is only 100A. I've never felt like I'd need more, so, who cares ?
- deprecative 3y ago
  It seems like the misunderstanding / issue you have is that you don't appear to download anything. As someone that downloads plenty (video games, large binaries in general) I'm at 1.2Gbps and would definitely need more in the next few future years. Would I be fine with 500Mbps/500Mbps? Sure but I'd be grumpy but at least it would be symmertrical.
  - te_chris 3y ago
    I have 1gbps but it’s DOCSIS so up is mediocre. I’d rather a (much) slower symmetric fibre connection any day

tialaramex 3y ago

I'm much less bothered about "fibre Internet". It's a bigger number, people like bigger numbers, but they generally don't matter very much. 1Gbps symmetric would be cheaper here than my current 40Mbps. But, it would come from a typical mediocre "CGNAT is fine for reading Facebook and watching Netflix" company, whereas my ISP gives me a /48 to put all my stuff in so I can use it from anywhere without some dubious tunnelling hack. A long time ago now, 1996, I moved into my first shared student house. We had Always On, because we were a household of nerds and we knew that's what we wanted. That's a shared (between maybe five people, more when girlfriends are in) 56kbps Internet link. But what matters isn't bandwidth it's the Always On nature of the connectivity. Within months, modern habits like searching for the answers to questions on the Web as a reflex, became normal in that house, because everybody had Internet all the time. Now, I'm not suggesting 56kbps is good enough in 2023. But I don't find I have ever wished for 1Gbps rather than 40Mbps. Not even "Sometimes I wonder if it's worth it". It just never arises as a consideration. 1Gbps is more, but more than plenty is just irrelevant. It's like I've never been bothered that my electricity supply is only 100A. I've never felt like I'd need more, so, who cares ?

deprecative 3y ago
It seems like the misunderstanding / issue you have is that you don't appear to download anything. As someone that downloads plenty (video games, large binaries in general) I'm at 1.2Gbps and would definitely need more in the next few future years. Would I be fine with 500Mbps/500Mbps? Sure but I'd be grumpy but at least it would be symmertrical.
- te_chris 3y ago
  I have 1gbps but it’s DOCSIS so up is mediocre. I’d rather a (much) slower symmetric fibre connection any day