Linked by Howard Fosdick on Thu 24th Jan 2013 10:12 UTC
In the past, OS News has discussed how U.S. broadband access lags many other countries in terms of cost, speed, and availability. Now, this detailed report from the New America Foundation tells why. It all comes down to a lack of competition among the carriers, which can be traced back to the days when cable companies were granted local monopolies. The report argues that "...data caps... are hardly a necessity. Rather, they are motivated by a desire to further increase revenues from existing subscribers and protect legacy services such as cable television from competing Internet services." The report's conclusion: don't expect improvements without legislative action.
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Member since:2006-05-30
Cable (Virgin Media): 110Mbs (advertised as 100Mb)
BT Infinity: 76Mbs
Both of those are just downstream speeds (I *think* VM offer 10Mb upstream. BT offer 19Mbs).
BT Infinity: 76Mbs
Both of those are just downstream speeds (I *think* VM offer 10Mb upstream. BT offer 19Mbs).
I *think* VM does have better up speeds, but they are not standard and the user ends up paying a lot more. They might only be for business use (though then you get in to the wonderful world of Cable and Wireless.)
BT Infinity is fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) - so the street and door are all copper. VM are -IIRC- fibre to the street, so from the street to the door is copper.
I think it depends. Some areas VM are fibre to cabinet, copper to the door, but their cabling is (IMO) better, as the cables are designed for high capacity broadcast TV, rather than phone traffic (saying that, do BT Fibre installs come over the standard phone line up to the door, or do they cable like VM do?)
It's also worth mentioning that BT have been rolling out ADSL2+ to a number of towns. Which sees speeds increased from theoretical max of 8Mb to 24Mb. These speeds theoretical maximums aren't fully achievable though: line noise, other subscribers, etc. But you can still get fairly decent performance if you're lucky.
The problem with BT is that it's all very random still. VM, you either get close to the best quoted speed or you don't get anything because they aren't in that area. Unless your local loop is saturated, the speeds are very consistent. With BT, you will hardly ever come close to the advertised speed, and ADSL up speeds are fairly dismal compared to either fibre offering.
The other thing: this new site being advertised in the UK, Broadbandchoices.co.uk, show you something important about BT infinity: the speed may be quoted the same, the price may be similar or cheaper, but the data is capped. VM isn't, and like I mentioned - you might well have your data shaped at peak, but I can still stream Netflix all day without hitting any buffering on my Wii or iPad/Nexus 7. BT Infinity is also still very niche, and we certainly don't get it yet in my area.
Edited 2013-01-24 15:02 UTC
Member since:2007-03-26
do BT Fibre installs come over the standard phone line up to the door, or do they cable like VM do?
I'm not 100% sure to be honest. I think they used the existing line when I signed up, just replacing my master phone socket with an ethernet -RJ45- socket.
The other thing: this new site being advertised in the UK, Broadbandchoices.co.uk, show you something important about BT infinity: the speed may be quoted the same, the price may be similar or cheaper, but the data is capped. VM isn't, and like I mentioned - you might well have your data shaped at peak, but I can still stream Netflix all day without hitting any buffering on my Wii or iPad/Nexus 7. BT Infinity is also still very niche, and we certainly don't get it yet in my area.
I've heard some people comment about the capping on BT, but I've actually found them to be highly forgiving. Though I will concede this is purely my own anecdotal evidence and my usage isn't really typical (most of my heavy traffic is over night and nearly all of my traffic is encrypted either as HTTPS or tunnelled via SSH. Plus I don't really do torrents (bar Linux CDs and creative commons content as I feel guilty stealing the bandwidth hehe)
Edited 2013-01-24 18:10 UTC
Features
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/18/13 21:33 UTC
Why does Google get so much credit in the technology industry? Why, despite the company's many obvious failings, do many geeks and enthusiasts still hold a somewhat positive view on the all-knowing technology giant? A specific talk at Google I/O this week provides the answer.
Linked by David Adams on 05/16/13 4:23 UTC
OSNews is a sponsor of this year's O'Reilly OSCON in Portland, Oregon, USA. A lucky OSNews reader will win a free three-day pass, including two tutorials days. To win the pass, post a comment on this story saying something about Open Source Software or OSCON. We'll pick a winner at random next week. If you don't have an OSNews account, you may email us your entry. Part of the conference is the 9th annual Open Source Awards, and today the 16th is the deadline for nominations. If you'd like to nominate an outstanding open source contributor, do it here. Read on for more information about OSCON. Update: The 20% discount code for OSNews readers is "OSN."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/11/13 21:41 UTC
"Windows is indeed slower than other operating systems in many scenarios, and the gap is worsening." That's one way to start an insider explanation of why Windows' performance isn't up to snuff. Written by someone who actually contributes code to the Windows NT kernel, the comment on Hacker News, later deleted but reposted with permission on Marc Bevand's blog, paints a very dreary picture of the state of Windows development. The root issue? Think of how Linux is developed, and you'll know the answer.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/08/13 14:22 UTC
This is one of those news items that's fun to write, fun to read, fun to comment on, and where no one will be able to say anything unkind. It's all just one big ball of awesome fluffiness. TuneTracker, the BeOS radio automation software, has just released something very special: TuneTracker System 5, the first version designed entirely and specifically for Haiku. In fact, it actually includes Haiku in the software package. Better yet, TuneTracker also unveiled several system-in-a-box products - which have Haiku and TuneTracker pre-installed.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/02/13 15:28 UTC
Exactly twenty years ago, a document was published that played a huge role in establishing the web as we know it today. Twenty years later, and this simple and straightforward document is proof of an irrefutable fact: while closed technologies can change markets, open technologies can change the world.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/29/13 21:06 UTC
Oh multitasking. That staple of computing that got thrown out the window with many modern smartphones. We got some rudimentary thing in its place - but even as multitasking on phone and tablets improves, its user-visible side remains cumbersome. Windows 8 has a neat implementation, and now it's time Android follows in it footsteps.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/24/13 22:24 UTC
They're here! Whether that excites you or not remains to be seen, but the Galaxy S4, which will most likely become the best selling Android smartphone of the year by a huge margin, has been reviewed by all the major sites, and there's lots of interesting conclusions in there - although I think most of you will get the gist.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/18/13 11:21 UTC
Nokia has posted its quarterly results for the first quarter of 2013, and just like the quarters that came before, there's not a whole lot of good news in there. The rise in Lumia sales still can't even dream of making up for the sales drop in Symbian phones, and when broken down in versions, the sales figures for Windows Phone 8 Lumias in particular are very disappointing. In North America, Nokia is getting slaughtered.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/16/13 9:29 UTC
The day has finally come: Google has started shipping Google Glass to the lucky few early adopters. Now that it's shipping, Google has also unveiled a lot more about the API and the specifications of the device itself. While the company had already given out substantial details at earlier occasions, there are still a few surprises here.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/15/13 22:44 UTC
Almost exactly three years ago, I wrote about why OSNews was no longer OSNews: the alternative operating system scene had died, and OSNews, too, had to go with the times and move towards reporting on a new wave of operating systems - mobile, and all the repercussions that the explosion of smartphones and tablets have caused. Still, I was wondering something today: why aren't we seeing alternative operating systems on mobile?More Features »
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Member since:
2007-03-26
Cable (Virgin Media): 110Mbs (advertised as 100Mb)
BT Infinity: 76Mbs
Both of those are just downstream speeds (I *think* VM offer 10Mb upstream. BT offer 19Mbs).
Neither providers supply end-to-end fibre (well, not in the context of home broadband. At work we have a couple of GbE fibre links provided by BT).
BT Infinity is fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) - so the street and door are all copper. VM are -IIRC- fibre to the street, so from the street to the door is copper.
It's also worth mentioning that BT have been rolling out ADSL2+ to a number of towns. Which sees speeds increased from theoretical max of 8Mb to 24Mb. These speeds theoretical maximums aren't fully achievable though: line noise, other subscribers, etc. But you can still get fairly decent performance if you're lucky.
Edited 2013-01-24 14:09 UTC