| News | Features | Interviews |
| Blog | Contact | Editorials |
| U.S. Broadband Access Lags |
| By Howard Fosdick on 2012-07-27 02:57:32 |
| A free, new report from the New America Foundation compares cost, speed, and availabilty of internet connectivity in 22 cities around the world. The report concludes that U.S. consumers face comparatively high, rising connectivity costs, even while the majority have very limited choices -- often only one or two providers. The report argues that U.S. broadband policies need to change, otherwise consumer choice will continue to deteriorate. |
|
| RE[3]: Who cares about the fastest residential speeds? |
| By arpan on 2012-07-28 01:07:12 |
|
That's pretty much how it is in most homes. Everyone's out during the day at school or work, and then everyone's home and on the net or TV in the evening. |
 - Score: 2 |
| The lag |
| By yester64 on 2012-07-28 02:14:23 |
|
Well, yes. You can still use an envelope to mail a letter. No problem with that. But in reality, most companies want an internet application to be considered. The internet is like the bloodline in the world of tomorrow. One thing i noticed coming to this country, how locked up the markets are. One can think of as markets regulate themself (and serve themselfs), but this means also lesser innovation and higher prices. I once had an unlimited plan. Its now a limited plan. And changing a provider doesn't matter since all providers to the same. Fact is, the US has the least competition compared to europe. And netneutrality is also compromised already. At least i am not living in the urban areas where it is really bad. |
| - Score: 3 |
| RE[3]: Who cares about the fastest residential speeds? |
| By OMRebel on 2012-07-28 05:24:25 |
|
> > I have a teenage son is that usually watching Youtube videos, playing games, listening to music, etc... You know, stuff that does take up a bit of bandwidth. Meanwhile, if my wife and I want to watch a movie over Netflix or Amazon Instant Video. Now, if my son is hogging up even half of the small amount of bandwidth that is even offered to me, then my wife and I can't watch Netflix or Amazon Instant Video - the quality would be way too crappy. If we were living in a larger city, then that wouldn't be a problem, as we'd have much more options. But as it stands now, we have no options and it sucks. Our one and only ISP isn't going to change in the foreseeable future. First of all, I think your embellishing what your family is actually doing at any one time, but somehow you think that is an adequate rebuttal. I think you're pretending everyone does every activity simultaneously. Second, my reply was about the fastest observable speeds in an area like a near major city (that other people won't be able to benefit) as representative of the whole. I was saying who cares about that maximum speed in the nearest city? There are more interesting and alarming metrics like what I mentioned about what's going on in your neighborhood, and in your case of being in a remote area and having to pay more bucks for still slower speeds. Embellishing? You obviously don't have a teenage child. |
| - Score: 2 |
| RE: Lazy bums! |
| By quackalist on 2012-07-28 06:03:05 |
|
Not sure if the above is supposed to be some daft sarcastic variant on how to come off as the dumb conservative middle-class bloke or for real. Anyway, I'll bite, when did the Socialist Republics of America mandate a $6 a month lazy bum telephone & internet tax? |
| - Score: 4 |
| Comment by ilovebeer |
| By ilovebeer on 2012-07-28 09:35:45 |
|
It's funny that some of you think you're better qualified to determine a persons needs than they are themselves. Then when people bother to go into detail, they receive criticism. What childish behavior for a talk about internet access speeds. To those of you who don't think anyone needs fast internet access, we get it. You're out-of-touch. You should accept the fact that other people have usage that differs from your own and thus needs that differ. Be oblivious all you like but try to be less willing to look foolish. |
| - Score: 3 |
| RE[2]: Lazy bums! |
| By jefro on 2012-07-28 16:58:12 |
|
Easy, look at your bill. It varies on state to state and how much you pay. Nice of you to pay for lazy bum's by the way. Thanks. http://www.southernlinc.com/cust... No one NEEDS internet. Millions of people do fine without it everyday in every walk of life from poor to advanced countries. Try to live a normal life without it for a week. You will find books, and people who talk to each other and friends and sports and well, the list goes on. Edited 2012-07-28 17:00 UTC |
| - Score: 0 |
| RE[3]: Lazy bums! |
| By andih on 2012-07-28 18:11:01 |
|
well in my country, people NEED internet. a considerable amount of office jobs have been replaced by websites and web forms.. So without internet, you're screwd. so yes, I need internet. Guess the situation for the americans is heading the same way. |
| - Score: 4 |
| RE[3]: Lazy bums! |
| By ilovebeer on 2012-07-28 21:10:16 |
|
> Easy, look at your bill. It varies on state to state and how much you pay. Nice of you to pay for lazy bum's by the way. Thanks. http://www.southernlinc.com/cust... No one NEEDS internet. Millions of people do fine without it everyday in every walk of life from poor to advanced countries. Try to live a normal life without it for a week. You will find books, and people who talk to each other and friends and sports and well, the list goes on. I guess someone should let you in on a little secret about the internet... People don't only use it for entertainment. I know, practically incomprehensible right? Just for kicks you should do a little homework looking into how (your) life would be affected if the internet collapsed. The impact would be far more reaching than you, I'm guessing, have a clue about. SPOILER ALERT: The outlook would be pretty damn grim. |
| - Score: 3 |
| RE[4]: Who cares about the fastest residential speeds? |
| By tomcat on 2012-07-29 03:00:38 |
|
> Embellishing? You obviously don't have a teenage child He made a good point. Your teenage child isn't using bandwidth 24-hours a day, right? I mean, he or she attends school, plays in sports, participates in clubs, hangs out with friends, etc? Further, beyond that, it's not necessary to have 100M-bit access in order to do most common network tasks. That was his point. |
| - Score: 1 |
| RE[2]: Who cares about the fastest residential speeds? |
| By tomcat on 2012-07-29 03:03:16 |
|
> Dunno why this got downvoted so much. It's not clear to me that fast residential speeds are that important. I have a few handkerchiefs to lend to those poor souls who can't watch Netflix while their children torrent the latest episode of Gilmore Girls and stream YouTube. Agree. There are plenty of modern routers that allow you to explicitly throttle the bandwidth of specific IP addresses. Use static IP assignments. Nobody should be allowed to monopolize the entire pipe. |
| - Score: 1 |
| News | Features | Interviews |
| Blog | Contact | Editorials |