U.S. Broadband Access Lags
Linked by Howard Fosdick on Fri 27th Jul 2012 02:57 UTC
Internet & Networking 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.
E-mail Print r 0   46 Comment(s) http://osne.ws/k8i
Thread beginning with comment 528625
To view parent comment, click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
OMRebel
Member since:
2005-11-14

"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.

Reply Parent Score: 2

tomcat Member since:
2006-01-06

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.

Reply Parent Score: 1

ilovebeer Member since:
2011-08-08

"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. "
It doesn't matter if his teenager uses the internet 24 hours a day. What matters is having enough bandwidth to accommodate your demand as needed. As I said in a previous post, each individual is best suited to determine what their own needs are. It's common sense that some people have far greater demand while others have far lower.

Reply Parent Score: 3

Read more of this thread... >