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I've lived in a place where a nice local company offered fiber. Up to 1gbps, symmetric and very reasonably priced lower tiers too (100-300mbps). They had a mono
by _ea1k 3y ago
I've lived in a place where a nice local company offered fiber. Up to 1gbps, symmetric and very reasonably priced lower tiers too (100-300mbps). They had a monopoly, and people loved to complain about issues that were... mostly their router. Though occasionally real issued happened too, of course.
A cable company moved in with introductory rates that were about what the previous rate was, but for higher dl speeds and much lower ul speeds. It was cable based. They added eyesore boxes all over the neighborhood.
Plenty of people building new houses bought cable, and some switched as well.
I've also lived in a neighborhood with ATT fiber, and have seen the same phenomenon. The cable company is much worse, but people will still choose them sometimes.
Why be competitive, when you'll get customers either way? :shrug
- bell-cot 3y agoMy experience: There are some people who are distrusting or hostile enough toward "socialism"/"politicians"/"the gov'ment" that they'll eagerly pay more for worse service. Or, just think of how many people keep buying bottles of drinking water.
- _ea1k 3y agoI think there's also an element of competence. Why choose 300/300 over 500(*)! They don't know the difference between fiber and cable, didn't read the fine print showing the low upload speeds on the "500". :facepalm
- delecti 3y agoI do think that most of it is ignorance, but realistically upload speed is irrelevant for most people most of the time.
- _ea1k 3y agoI think that was more true before automatically backed up photos became a thing. Even video chat can make it relevant, given how restricted some are.
- daemin 3y agoIf all they ever care about is sending a few emails and watching videos, possibly many at a time, then 500 down is better than 300 symmetric.
- _ea1k 3y agoNot really. Either one will handle downloading those emails and videos just fine. Rarely will the service at the other end keep up anyway. OTOH, when icloud (or Google Photos) is uploading full in the background with the crummy ISP provided router, they'll wonder why they aren't getting anywhere near 500 via their cable.
- bell-cot 3y agoPoint. And the muni service has ~no chance of out-glitzing the commercial ISP's slick marketing, celebrity endorsements, "Watch Star Wars for Free!*" offers, & such. *Star Wars Holiday Special only