Lack of Competition Holds Back U.S. Broadband
Linked by Howard Fosdick on Thu 24th Jan 2013 10:12 UTC
Internet & Networking 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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RE[2]: TL;DR
by xaoslaad on Thu 24th Jan 2013 18:17 UTC in reply to "RE: TL;DR"
xaoslaad
Member since:
2006-03-07

If you say so. I had only cable internet from Comcast and after a few price hikes to a little over $70 PLUS 250GB data caps I moved to FIOS for internet only.

I pay just under $55 ($54.95 or 99 or something like that) now for FIOS each month for 15/5 which is FASTER than comcast and, oh.. no data caps.

Verizon are a bunch of shit heads too, but don't tell me FIOS doesn't have competitive prices, caps, speeds, etc. That's a crock.

Edited 2013-01-24 18:18 UTC

Reply Parent Score: 1

RE[3]: TL;DR
by Alfman on Thu 24th Jan 2013 18:48 in reply to "RE[2]: TL;DR"
Alfman Member since:
2011-01-28

xaoslaad,

"I pay just under $55 ($54.95 or 99 or something like that) now for FIOS each month for 15/5 which is FASTER than comcast and, oh.. no data caps."

That's a great price, was that a special deal? Maybe I'm just too accustomed to the higher prices/lower competition in the middle of long island. We'd love to have FIOS out here, our cable service has had problems and I'm so jealous of the bandwidth my brother in law is actually getting with FIOS.

Edited 2013-01-24 18:51 UTC

Reply Parent Score: 2

RE[4]: TL;DR
by xaoslaad on Thu 24th Jan 2013 20:45 in reply to "RE[3]: TL;DR"
xaoslaad Member since:
2006-03-07

I had to sign a 2 year contract for the price - that was the downside of the whole thing. But as I'm not planning to move anytime soon it was no issue for me, as long as the service was reliable. So far it has been.

Reply Parent Score: 1

RE[3]: TL;DR
by Casey99 on Thu 24th Jan 2013 19:55 in reply to "RE[2]: TL;DR"
Casey99 Member since:
2011-07-14

In most places you have to pay $60 for 3/1Mbps unbundled. That's without the added taxes/fees. That is expensive. Even more if you are one of the unlucky people served by VDSL2 instead of fiber. 15/5 is $70 is most places, plus taxes/fees. If you bundle it goes way down. But then you pay for TV.

It may be uncapped, but Verizon has said before they don't know if FiOS will stay that way. Comcast is currently not enforcing the cap in many places.

Edited 2013-01-24 19:57 UTC

Reply Parent Score: 1

RE[4]: TL;DR
by henderson101 on Fri 25th Jan 2013 13:39 in reply to "RE[3]: TL;DR"
henderson101 Member since:
2006-05-30

Holy carp! 30Mb in the UK from Virgin Media (cable, fibre to the cabinet) is £22.50 a month, which is about US$36. And we tend to think *we* pay too much. You can actually get it cheaper if you take a phone line too (overall it costs more, but the broadband is reduced to around £15, plus about the same for the phone line.)

Reply Parent Score: 2