# Outrageous US internet



## wonderboy1953

I'm trying to figure out why (according to a tv show I watched), as compared to the US, the internet is so much faster overseas (up to 20 times faster  per the program) and much less (around $6 to $10)? I've heard that the US wasn't too competitive, but that's ridiculous.


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## Unquestionably

Different places have different practices and customs.

Overseas, it's probably more about customer satisfaction.  In the US, it's allways about the money and cost-cutting.


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## StrangleHold

Its the opposite on how many people have a internet connection % wise for population. Alot of people in the US have the capability of having higher bandwidth but choose not to pay for it because they rarely download big files, so they dont pay for it.

US 77%
Africa 10.9%
Asia 21.5%
Europe 58.4%
Middle East 29.8%
Latin America 34.5%
Australia 61.3%


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## Twist86

I dunno most people I meet have bandwidth caps over seas, so whats the point of having a 10x faster connection when you can only download 100GB a month? I can easily download 400-500GB a month on my little 20mb connection.


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## Dropkickmurphys

As far as I was aware, the US has better internet than here in the UK. 

At home we pay something like £15 a month for a 20Mb connection (of which we only get 6Mb thanks to using a copper phone line). We get a 10GB a month (or something stupidly small) download limit every month. If we exceed that 3 times we automatically get bumped up to the next package (which we then have to start paying for).

Thank god I don't currently spend much time at home (I'm at uni), as I can download 10GB in a day...

To get unlimited download and a good speed here you have to go with Virgin Media and pay extra for their unlimited download otherwise they throttle you really bad.

(I kinda wish I lived in Sweden or Japan or something for internet! lol)


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## jgoff14

Now in all fairness I do pay over $100 per month but I heart it. (With the exception that my wifi is being dumb right now)


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## PohTayToez

The US has it's population spread over such a wide area, it makes it much more expensive to provide higher speeds to more people.  Lack of competition is also a factor in prices, usually you only have one big cable provider in an area, and that lets them slack on the quality of service they provide.

Countries like Japan and Korea are densely populated as well as being technologically advanced allowing them to easily provide everyone with high quality internet.  I believe that some countries also have government provided or subsidized internet.


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## tlarkin

PohTayToez said:


> The US has it's population spread over such a wide area, it makes it much more expensive to provide higher speeds to more people.  Lack of competition is also a factor in prices, usually you only have one big cable provider in an area, and that lets them slack on the quality of service they provide.
> 
> Countries like Japan and Korea are densely populated as well as being technologically advanced allowing them to easily provide everyone with high quality internet.  I believe that some countries also have government provided or subsidized internet.



Ding ding ding we have a winnar!!!!1!!!1!    

The USA is a massive country.  Germany is like the size of Kansas.  It is easy to run fiber all across Germany, it is a small country compared to the USA.   Also the USA government, specifically the FCC lets telecom companies bend the consumer over, and it may get worse.  Anti-Net neutrality and things like Google and Verizon merging are NOT good for the consumer.  This stuff is being debated in government right now.

Also the last head of the FCC quit their job to jump ship to Comcast after deregulating something for Comcast to allow them more money.


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## wonderboy1953

*A few more thoughts*

In response to Twist86, at some point in the future, the internet may be so fast that nobody may care (e.g. downloading something in 1/10 of a second as opposed to a second - my understanding is that the internet can potentially be 100,000 times faster than it is now).

I'm speculating that foreign governments may be subsidizing the internet.


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## Troncoso

Dropkickmurphys said:


> As far as I was aware, the US has better internet than here in the UK.
> 
> At home we pay something like £15 a month for a 20Mb connection (of which we only get 6Mb thanks to using a copper phone line). We get a 10GB a month (or something stupidly small) download limit every month. If we exceed that 3 times we automatically get bumped up to the next package (which we then have to start paying for).
> 
> Thank god I don't currently spend much time at home (I'm at uni), as I can download 10GB in a day...
> 
> To get unlimited download and a good speed here you have to go with Virgin Media and pay extra for their unlimited download otherwise they throttle you really bad.
> 
> (I kinda wish I lived in Sweden or Japan or something for internet! lol)



you know, aside the 10gb a month limit, you get a great deal. I'm paying around $60 for 7mb. While it is unlimited, I get throttled badly. I never see speeds above 1.5mb d/l.

and I'm just waiting for the internet to be a standard non speed -issued thing to have.


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## Twist86

Troncoso said:


> you know, aside the 10gb a month limit, you get a great deal. I'm paying around $60 for 7mb. While it is unlimited, I get throttled badly. I never see speeds above 1.5mb d/l.



That is a combo of a crap ISP and poor lines (aka old). I would search for another solution if possible as most cities in the US have 3 providers normally. This new place I pay $60 for a 20mb line and for a 12mb line = $45 (if you bundle) I get 95% of the connection promised and during RARE times I will drop to 70% on peak. With Comcast I had the beta 50mb line and I only got 25mb which after some major complaints they cut my price down and they cringed as they did it.


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## Troncoso

Twist86 said:


> That is a combo of a crap ISP and poor lines (aka old). I would search for another solution if possible as most cities in the US have 3 providers normally. This new place I pay $60 for a 20mb line and for a 12mb line = $45 (if you bundle) I get 95% of the connection promised and during RARE times I will drop to 70% on peak. With Comcast I had the beta 50mb line and I only got 25mb which after some major complaints they cut my price down and they cringed as they did it.



It's all crap ISP. The lines are less than a year old. They were put in after I moved here. But I've never seen anyone with Timer Warner's Road runner get more than 1 to 2 mbs. I considered comcast but they aren't in my area.


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## jgoff14

When I first got my comcast 50, they had the wrong boot file in their system for my account and couldn't get it changed. I was only getting the 20mb connection, until they erased me as a customer and readded me. Every time they tried to reset my boot file it kept defaulting to 20 for some reason. As you can tell they got it worked out, and I'm more than happy!


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## boo-boo

I have a 20mb connection through mediacom which is $40 for the first year and $55 after.  I usually get between 20 and 30 mb and during the busiest times it goes under 20.  This is in a small town in minnesota with 1500 people in it.  There is also 5 other ISP's i could have chosen but went with mediacom cause it is the cheapest and fastest in the area.


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## linkin

I pay $90 for whatever my line supports (in this case, 8mbps cause I'm 3KM cable length from the exchange) and 200GB. then it's 512kbps after that. I also pay $10 extra for a static IP and unmetered uploads 

What are your data limits over there?


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## boo-boo

linkin said:


> I pay $90 for whatever my line supports (in this case, 8mbps cause I'm 3KM cable length from the exchange) and 200GB. then it's 512kbps after that. I also pay $10 extra for a static IP and unmetered uploads
> 
> What are your data limits over there?



I dont think there are any data limits in the US if there is its rare we can download as much as we want to.


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## jgoff14

I believe, I read somewhere that Comcast has a 250gb limit per month. They say if it is exceeded 2 times you get your service canceled. They didn't tell me this but I had searched before I signed up. I don't know the validity to it. I don't go near it, so it doesn't matter to me. The most I have downloaded is 72gb in any one month but typically 20 - 40 at most.


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## Motorcharge

jgoff14 said:


> I believe, I read somewhere that Comcast has a 250gb limit per month. They say if it is exceeded 2 times you get your service canceled. They didn't tell me this but I had searched before I signed up. I don't know the validity to it. I don't go near it, so it doesn't matter to me. The most I have downloaded is 72gb in any one month but typically 20 - 40 at most.


Pretty sure they just throttle you without telling you if you peak their unofficial limit.

As for our average, pretty sure it gets dragged down by rural areas that are still stuck with dial up and satellite. Iirc co-axle cable is only good for around 3000 feet (roughly 3/4 of a mile) before you need a signal booster. That gets insanely expensive to run out in the country where you have people who live several miles apart.


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## tremmor

They will choke ya off. Had issues with comcast in the past. Said im using all the bandwidth and slowing everybody else down in the neighborhood. On the otherhand the only option was ATT Uverse but i do have fiber optics. and i pay about the same a hundred. but i do call and complain about price, will are you going to give me a price break. i also have the cable tv, phone service. Threaten to switch to comcast and dropped my price. but thats why i quit comcast because they also raised prices. i will switch if needed. 
My total is $244.00 a month. I do have some cheap cell phone. $40.00 a month.


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## Motorcharge

I've had issues with Comcrap for years, they're such a shitty ISP it's not even funny. I'd soooo switch of there were other cable options here.


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## tremmor

I did too when they came in and locked for about 15 yrs i think. Was nothing else. Have ATT and switch if needed. Maybe WOW would be more competition and even make it more competitive. Have no problem with switching back and forth to save money. I do negotiate. Its called saving money. they will give in for 6mo or a year. If ya don't complain you will get the increase. mine are both high. do the best i can do.

One problem is asking they will give you like HBO or and Cinamax free for six months or so. 
After that you get billed. Suggesting to sometime just buy a PPV or sign up and or get Netflex for tv. then again im a news freak only. its a suggestion to keep in mind to avoid problems.


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## jgoff14

I'm surprised, my grandparents have had Comcast for years with no trouble. In fact every time the bill changes, even a few $$ my grandma calls and they put her right back where she was. She pays $170 for 20Mbit, phone, and all tv except hbo and showtime with 4 hd recievers. I think it's pretty reasonable. No complaints about service quality either. I know that with my internet I'm happy though, I download of steam (about the only time I use it) and I get 6+ Mbytes per second (so in excess of what I pay for). I have low ping and NEVER have gotten below 50. I'll keep em as long as they value me as a customer. The same day they decide they want to charge more I'll cancel.


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## Troncoso

Any of you guys heard of charter?? It's one of the only providers that will be in my area and they are offering a deal for 12 mb d/l and regular cable with hd channels for $60 for 2 years


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## tremmor

Know many with Charter. not available though.
I move my providers sometime. just a pain. 
another job. 
called saving money. what ever i got. they all bump.


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## apj101

PohTayToez said:


> The US has it's population spread over such a wide area, it makes it much more expensive to provide higher speeds to more people.  Lack of competition is also a factor in prices, usually you only have one big cable provider in an area, and that lets them slack on the quality of service they provide.
> 
> Countries like Japan and Korea are densely populated as well as being technologically advanced allowing them to easily provide everyone with high quality internet.  I believe that some countries also have government provided or subsidized internet.


That and the fact under-investment in all its infra-structure by huge amounts.


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## strollin

I'm currently paying too much for my internet from Comcast but am still pretty happy with it.  I get 500Mb downloads and unlimited data for $140/month.  $50 of that is for unlimited data.  Without unlimited data, we were exceeding the 1TB data limit on a monthly basis.  There's 5 adults in our household and we dropped cable TV so we typically use a lot of data.  Almost no downtime either, can't remember the last time our connection was down but when it is down, it's back up in a matter of minutes.


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## beers

I've had the same problems with them cost wise although our gigabit service is about the same price.

We had a provisioning issue with them a couple weeks ago where they blacklisted our modem MAC from the CMTS, but blamed my equipment.  Bought a new modem which worked, then hooked up the old one which sync'd immediately.  I was pretty irritated when they refused to do anything to resolve the issue, although it looks like they misprovisioned it against traffic accounting so all of the stats indicate 0 bytes used.  

Might be a good time to dump unlimited data lol.


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## strollin

beers said:


> ...
> Might be a good time to dump unlimited data lol.


Right now is the perfect time to have unlimited data since Comcast is giving me a credit for that $50/month due to the lock down.  Once they stop doing that, I'll keep the unlimited data because it only takes going over the data cap by 250.01GB for their overage fee to hit $60.  Before I opted for unlimited data, we had some months where we were charged $100 in overage fees.


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## Intel_man

Yikes... I'm on gigabit for $85cad/mo (940/940) and unlimited data. Although that being said, the competing ISP in the area that is on Cable just started to offer "gigabit" (1000/25) for $125cad/mo. I laughed and was glad I'm no longer a customer of that ISP.


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## OmniDyne

Intel_man said:


> Yikes... I'm on gigabit for $85cad/mo (940/940) and unlimited data.



My God. $80 a month out here yields us 50 Mbps down and 5 up. 

I find it funny how the ISPs all of a sudden can dish out "unlimited" plans. Strange considering they cried to Congress and the courts that it wasn't possible. Hmm...

Another funny thing is that ISPs here refuse to provide anything below 50 Mbps. Why can't I get 25 for like $30 a month? That's all I need.


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## Intel_man

OmniDyne said:


> Another funny thing is that ISPs here refuse to provide anything below 50 Mbps. Why can't I get 25 for like $30 a month? That's all I need.


ISP's here offer 25... but those thing cost like $60/mo. lmao


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