I thought data caps for home internet were a thing of the past…
I’ve somewhat recently moved back to a very rural area of the Midwest. Small town. No stop lights. Biggest businesses other than the bars are Casey’s, Subway, and Dollar General.
And we have one ISP (not counting DSL) — Mediacom. When we first signed up, I had to go with the second service tier. But not because of speeds, but so I could have a reasonable 1 TB/mo data cap.
Lucky me, they increased the cap to 1.5 TB. 🙄
I hope that in my lifetime I can see ISPs regulated as a public utility.
In Switzerland you get unlimited 10 Gbit/s for 50 bucks.
I hate you, congrats!
In Canada we have to give our firstborn to a telecommunication monopoly for somewhat OK internet.
Somewhat OK internet on the infrastructure our taxes paid for and the government handed over to Bell and Rogers, but don’t worry, they’ll stop all the other evil corporations from coming in and giving us cheaper internet.
I pay 90 ish Canadian pesos for 1gb/1gb for Bell fibre. It’s not too bad depending on your location, though that price is still too high. I’m at least making good use of it. 12tb of total transfers this month.
I pay 80$ for 1gb/750mb with bell. I could upgrade to 3/3 for 120$ but then they’d change my modem and the homehub 3000 was the last one I could remove the transceiver and plug fiber directly in my server opnsense router.
Wait, how’d you get that with Bell? I’m pretty sure my plan is the same speeds for like… double that amount
I have a permanent $30 discount from when I signed up. Also, apologies, I mixed up the price with my cell plan. 90 not 60.
I’m in a new construction (1yo), we only have Bell. Used to pay around that for 1Gbps, then they had a promo for 1.5Gbps at the same price couple months after we moved in. Called to complain, they ended up bumping me at that speed.
what the hell
WTF? 25gbps? Dang we really do have shitty internet in the States.
And /48 IPv6 subnet included! As it should be!
A /48 is quite overkill for a home customer. Do you have 65536 LANs at home? Here in Belgium, we get a /56.
They’re just preparing for one day when you have your own personal swarm of nano bots
Is it actually 10Gbit/s or just marketing? And how’s the latency?
Yeah, but those are metric bits so they are a little bit smaller.
Data caps on home internet services should be illegal. They should also be much higher on mobile, but that’s a whole other topic.
I have 940/940 Unlimited FTTH for $93.45(Canadian).
And France gets 5Gbps for €30 per month or 8Gbps for €40 per month. I’m in the US now and really miss free.fr as my ISP
I’m suddenly more motivated to do my French lessons on Duolingo now.
I know right! Free.fr was a real disruptor. They fought the government to open telecom to private companies (it used to be France Telecom only which is gov owned) then they worked with the gov to create a fiber network that can be used my multiple ISP. So no running parallel lines from separate companies, they all create, maintain and share the same network all over the country. Before that, they started as the first free dialup internet service. You would call a number, and connect. You were paying with ads. They also were the first DSL speed, first TV over DSL, first FTTH, first VoIP, and they also have a cell phone network. And the prices are forcing all the other companies to align. We seriously need free.for in the US.
What average consumer has hardware that’s actually capable of using more than 1Gbps?
Average none, though 2.5 Gbps is getting more and more common and WiFi is catching up too. You could max out multiple slower devices at the same time without hitting the limit of your uplink. I don’t have a use case for that, so I’d only upgrade from my current 1 Gbps to higher speeds if the price is comparable. That doesn’t mean that others don’t have a use case for it.
Most decent to higher end desktops have at least 2.5 Gbps. Even a laptop/desktop that doesn’t can get a 2.5 Gbps usb-c to ethernet dongle for like $30-$40.
Higher end access points also have 2.5 Gbps. I have no issue maxing out my 1.5 Gbps (ISP over provisions the lines so I get 1.7 gbps) on Steam. Also keep in mind that when you have a faster connection with multiple devices/people, each device/person might be able to pull 1 Gbps. As in if you have 2 Gbps internet service even 2 older computers that only have a gigabit internet connection, each could get the full gigabit to them.
If you’re the type of person that only uses wifi, you won’t see a difference between gigabit and multigigabit connections but plenty of people have ethernet throughout their homes and they make use of faster than gigabit connections.
2.5GbE and 5GbE is now in average consumer hardware. Also 10GbE router costs about 100$.
Data caps on home internet services should be illegal. They should also be much higher on mobile, but that’s a whole other topic.
I’m not convinced mobile deserves to have caps at all, either!
As far as I’m concerned, there’s no reason to limit the amount of data transfer except in times of congestion, and I also don’t see any reason the amount of data transferred during un-congested times should have any bearing on who gets throttled.
You’re way overpaying. I pay $40 for 1.5 Gbps with Bell FTTH. Give them a call and say it’s too expensive and see what they can do for you. Or tell them Rogers (if they’re in your area) offered you 1.5gbps for $60 and ask if they can beat that.
As for mobile, you should look at new plans. $39 gets you 20 GB $50 gets you 40 GB. Seems like plenty of data imo https://www.koodomobile.com/en/rate-plans?INTCMP=KM_HDD_2023_Plans_RatePlans_40gbfor45_ROC_MBSK
Best time to get a mobile plan is Black Friday, should be even better deals by then.
Home internet data caps WERE a thing of the past when Obama appointed Tom Wheeler as FCC chairman, who then pushed rulings to classify ISPs as a public utility and started enforcing net neutrality. Companies that didn’t play ball started getting fined until they fell in line. Being a former executive for a major ISP, he was very familiar with the anti-competitive practices and underhanded tricks those companies had been using for years; and he used those practices against them to finally make some pro-consumer progress for internet access in the US.
Then, Trump came in and put Ajit Pai in charge of the FCC (no joke, my phone kept auto correcting his name to Shit Pie). Anyways, Shit Pie tore down those rulings and undid all those years of progress as part of the Trump administration’s anti-Obama initiative. Even though it was proven time and again that what he did was directly against public opinion, and that ISPs were flooding the public commentary with bot posts(some even made by dead people); Shit Pie continued to meme about himself and drink from an obnoxiously large Reese’s coffee mug while doing so. At this point, every provider of internet services has added back data caps in the US, and they have continued to increase their prices to maintain that 99.9% profit margin. They’ve also locked down more areas to prevent municipal broadband services from forming, and they’re even pushing for legislation to prevent them from ever happening.
The current administration has done absolutely nothing. In fact, they’ve been so unremarkable, I have no idea who is in charge of the FCC, and I don’t feel like looking it up.
The Biden admin tried to nominate an amazing woman, Gigi Sohn, worked for the EFF. But try to guess who opposed her?
Ajit Pai used to be a lawyer for AT&T, just like the previous guy was an executive for the ISPs. However Ajit Pai was nominated by Obama originally. Trump made him head, but don’t get it twisted - there is a bipartisan concerted effort to fuck you. Tom Wheeler was just as bad as Pai - they were considering getting rid of net neutrality already in 2014 under him.
They basically just wait for the right moment to strike. If they fail they wait a few years and try again. They have a lot more patience persistence and attention than the public. They will always win.
In Thailand I’m getting 400Mbps upload and download with unlimited data.
It costs about 300฿/mo ≈ $8.7/mo
'Murica #1!!! (In high internet prices)
But you also get paid less
Median income is $23k in Thailand. $31k in US. It definitely doesn’t make up the difference.Edit: Used Personal income for US and Household for Thailand. It actually doesn’t bring the gap significantly closer.
Why are you using median household income for Thailand and median personal income for the US?
Median household income in the US is $71,000.
Good call. I didn’t even think to specify household vs personal. My mistake. I’ll edit to fix.
Although I agree that people get paid less here, I highly doubt that it costs an ISP in the US 8x more to transfer data than an ISP in Thailand.
I’m not really trying to argue that Thai internet is cheap, it’s that internet elsewhere is exorbitantly expensive.
What kind of rube works in the same country they live in? I met a lot of WFH workers when I visited Thailand, and not a single one of them was working for a company in Thailand.
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USAGE ALLOWANCE?!?!
Laughs in Scandinavian
I have luckily never heard about data caps in Scandinavia except for mobile broadband.
Do they even exist at all, here?
I had a friend years ago that had a cap, but that was literally the only one I’ve heard of in my life here (Sweden)
I don’t know, probably not. I don’t even know how fast I’d blow through 1,5 Tb!
My first (fast) internet connection was 1 Mbit.
We had 1gb to download per month. This cap disappeared when more competitors showed up though (i had that cap around … 2001)
I havnt seen a data cap for internet connections since. I am not aware of any either. Except for mobile phones. Though, they also have unlimited data for those , if you want. (I have. Just so i never have to worry about it ever again)
Dude… The US is doing it wrong. SE Asia. 1Gbps symmetrical, unlimited, unrestricted. ~14US$.
Australia looks like an interesting case. Iknow that in some countries, ISPs have to provide service to both urban and rural customers at the same price, which means that urban customers actually subsidize people living in rural areas. In some other cases, the gouvernements help pay for this.
Isn’t there a project in Australia that the federal gouvernement is subsidizing the role-out of fibre?
I have no idea, but that idea didn’t work out all that well in the US. The gov provided funding for expansion to the countryside for all the major telecoms…and they just pocketed without actually implementing anything.
Idk but pricing in Australia is fucked. The fibre network isn’t that large to begin with afaik, and even if you do have fibre you have to pay an arm and a leg for good speeds.
E.g. I pay like $70 USD a month for 100/40.
Symmetric gigabit costs several hundred a month, they’re not intended for residential customers.
Yeah, the ISP cartels sucks. I’ve been stuck paying $170/mo for uncapped 1000/35mbps connection.
Thankfully, before the end of the year, a local ISP is moving into my area. They offer uncapped symmetrical gigabit, for $75/mo… I’ll be saving $95/mo for BETTER service.
The longstanding ISP cartels should seriously be punished for the abuse of their market positions and failure to appropriately use government funding they’ve been given.
1000/35mbps
That download/upload dichotomy should be illegal in and of itself!
Yeah that’s abysmal, but it’s a result of the fact that docsis has always been an asymmetrical standard in which upload speeds are lower than download. I recently moved house and my old ISP was fiber to prem, we had symmetrical gigabit. New house is cable ISP that only offers 1000/50… While docsis 3.0 supports up to 200mbps up. Bunch of greedy bastards.
Oh they appropriated it all right, straight into their yachts and mansions.
Same boat here… and then the “default cap” is nothing. Between work and family, we hit the data cap of 1.25TB within three weeks.
Any place I can find more info about the “end of the year” timeframe you mentioned? A new ISP is also rolling in my area, but their site has been vague on time.
The main street into our house currently has it available, but our actual address not yet… driving me a little crazy.
Hope the new one is available for you soon.
$40 for 2 Gbps unlimited in Singapore. Caps on home broadband are frankly nonsensical.
I’m paying $40 CAD/mo for 1.5 Gbps down and 940 Mbps up here in Canada. Unlimited bandwidth, of course.
I just don’t understand the point of data caps. Internet is not something you order, like 10TBs for a village and the next order will arrive the next month. Or worse - internet supply issues, where Cisco is not able to manufacture TBs in time… Like what the fuck is data cap.
You don’t have TBs in internet infrastructure. You have throughput which means how much data per second you can send through your infrastructure.
Anyway, everyone flexing their ISPs, so do I:
- Vilnius, capital city of Lithuania
- “Telia” ISP.
- They offer speeds from 250mbps min to 2gbps max.
- Not sure about the other plans, but 1GBPS that I have is 940mbps down and 580mbps up and costs 19.90eur per month. Most importantly - no data caps, no slowdowns (at least in the past 3 years) and public IP that does not change.
I sorta understand why data caps were implemented in the past. Some people hosted servers on their home connection, and their total internet traffic in a week would far exceed that of a normal user’s. Data caps were meant to force people to be conservative on their internet usage so this would not happen.
But come on now, it’s 2023. If your internet infrastructure could not handle that amount of traffic, you are a laughing stock of ISPs.
Data cap never made sense because ISPs pay for pipe size, not total of data. Someone using 20mbps 24/7 will use a lot more data but cause a lot less congestion than someone using 300mbps for 1hr at peak hour every day.
If their infra is undersized, they should at least not count data between midnight and 8am toward the data cap since the pipes are mostly sitting idles
The Internet is not a big truck 🚛 it’s a series of tubes ➿
Overall everyone will use less data when there’s a data cap, I found.
My ISP implemented data caps back then too (thankfully it’s all removed now, but 60GB was really bonkers!) and I just find it fascinating how much traffic I generate nowadays, when I don’t have to care how much data I have left this month.
Anyways, data caps shouldn’t be relevant anymore in 2023 when absolutely everything can handle gigabits and more. It’s interesting how American ISPs still implement them.
The point is to make money, do they charge extra to increase the data cap? If so, it’s all about money.
It sucks. That’s why we need regulations for ISPs. This shouldn’t exist.
I’m reading all the comments and I’m shocked… In France, with uncapped access and 1Gbps down/600Mbps up (theorical) I pay 40€/mo (30€ every six month when I call to complain that it’s too expensive). And it’s definitely not the cheapest provider.
That’s insane !
1Gbps down/700Mbps up here, 35€/month (another french provider), no data caps - for 5 bucks/month more I could have 5Gbps down/1Gbps up, but… well, my home network is still using 1Gbps switches - but all the cabling was built with 10Gbps in mind.
Data caps are pure robbery. We run a non-profit ISP/hosting platform and a non-profit IXP with friends in West France, the only thing you pay (and the only thing end users should have to pay) is goddamn bandwidth.
Interesting that they give you more up than down. Are you on a server plan or something like that?
Edit: lol just noticed what community this is, server plan makes more sense now.
I messed up, that’s the opposite actually ^^
(30€ every six month when I call to complain that it’s too expensive)
Sounds like a Liberty Global owned telecom company… they love their annual price increases ugh, but they are usually the fastest option in most areas
lol uncapped 500mbps fiber (actual fiber directly to your house) connection is 10-12$/month in Ukraine
Well, the internet companies have successfully bribed politicians to avoid competition. This is just the normal result of everyday corruption.
Capitalism working as intended
Hey! I’ll have you know that Comcast and Time Warner are in the fiercest of competitions. They are practically bankrupting themselves while slashing each other’s throats. /s
I live in the UK and currently have copper cable at about 60mbps for £60 per month. I thought what I had was bad because I have a friend who gets 1gbps for £30 a few miles away.
I’m in the US and get 1Gbps for about £30, because my city forced ISPs to sell portions of their networks to third party competitions to break up monopolies.
Crazy that they make you pay in pounds in the US though.
Where on earth are you and who with to be fleeced that much?
In the north-west. BT currently have a local monopoly so they can charge what they want
So it’s my impression that (and my knowledge might be out of date here) but almost anywhere that BT is then there should be at least 1 other company that operates on their lines (or rather Openreaches line, after they were split out of BT for competition purposes) so you should be able to get someone else with luck.
Try using Sam knows website and they tell lots about your line and what you can get.
If you’re rural, check out B4RN.
Where the hell in the UK are you? I’m in the North and pay £26 for 60mbps but get more like 70 due to how close I am to the street cabinet though I haven’t even got copper cable here, just crappy aluminium that is so old I think Alexander Graham Bell himself fitted them.
I’m in the north-west but I’m limited to BT because nobody else has cables down yet. A different company claims to be fitting FttP round here in a few months though.
Similar issue here, full fibre roll out is estimated to be complete in 2025.
I’m just outside Newcastle on the coast and could get Virgin but my neighbours have had a nightmare with it.
They only rolled out their fibre about three months ago so there might be issues with that
I’m in leeds and pay £30 a month for 1gig with virgin. You sould move house. Get better broadband.
Shit dude, I pay €20 for synchronous 1Gb/s.
Scandinavia or east Asia?
Since they are paying in € it’s probably Scandinavia.
Neither, Spain.
![[RANT] I pay $70/mo for this privilege](https://i.imgur.com/xEZZ9Hb.jpg){kind=link}