AT&T and Verizon say 10Mbps is too fast for “broadband,” 4Mbps is enough

I pay $104.95 a month just for internet. No cable TV or Phone. We stream everything...

originally posted by: interupt42

originally posted by: Hoosierdaddy71
I think you Europeans forget how big the USA is. The amount of distance from one coast to the other is kind of staggering. Then add in population density.
We prolly have more unpaved roads than most of your countries have paved roads. Infrastructure take time and money.


I looked it up and the United Kingdom is slightly small than the state of Oregon. That's just an perspective builder.

size of the US has just a little to do with it. The real reason is lack of competion. Look at how att verizon and comcast oligopoly magically over night doubled everyone speed in areas where google fiber announced they would be deploying.

Also the nobody needs more than 4mb download is bs. Try watching netflix in 2 different rooms voip calls and web surfing with that. They have properly assumassumeded that consumers are not to bright and they can manipulate them to thinking they dont need that speed.

So you don't think the sheer size of the country was a huge factor in the time it took to install fiber optic cable? Not to mention the amount of money it takes to upgrade all the servers to handle the traffic.

a reply to: Stan71

that is quite terrible what's even more sad is that it's 97% faster than everyone else in the US.

I wish Google would push their fiber faster you guys really need some better internet over there, it is quite sad that a supposedly 1st world country has slower and 3 times more expensive internet than some supposed 2nd-3rd world countries.

I pay around 40-45 for 40up/3down with phone included and that is considered expensive.

Fiber is already being deployed and we will have maybe 10 new providers coming into the competition the prices are going to be around 25-32$ a month for 100/100 and will hopefully drop once everything is in place and the competition for customers starts.

the US might be big but as mentioned the main reason it is so behind in internet is greedy corporations that don't want to invest to improve their infrastructure, it can be done and it wouldn't even take that long but they just don't want to do it.

What bullcrap. The Japamese get FREE 3GBPS internet. Yes you read that ri ght - 3 GIGabytes per second.

a reply to: Hoosierdaddy71

So you don't think the sheer size of the country was a huge factor in the time it took to install fiber optic cable? Not to mention the amount of money it takes to upgrade all the servers to handle the traffic.

Not saying that , at one time that was a huge factor. Now the biggest factor is lack of competion by the telecom oligopoly (Att,Verizon,and Comcast) which are arrogant ,fat , and lazy. BTW for good reasons, they have succesfully proven how powerful they are time and time again. They just sit back and tell the customers what they want and what they are going to take and laugh on the way to the bank.

Do you find it interesting that Comcast has the worst customer rating year after year and despite their customer base hating them they are the biggest and most profitable ISP. What kind of business with competion could get away with that?

There arrogance and B$ was so great that another Oligopoly industry (Tech industry: Google,Amazon,Netflix) told them to get there $hit together for years as its impacting their industry. After years of B$ from the Telecom industry, Google themselves said F them and if they don't step up we will.

Google Fiber brand new to the telecom sector was able to do what they said couldn't be done and prove that there is a market for Fast,Reliable, unthrottled , reasonable priced internet.Who would have thought?. Then all the sudden with the same infrastructue in place the telecom oligopoly started to double peoples internet where google fiber was implemented.

What was the first reaction by the telecom oligopoly when they saw Google Fiber provide faster, more reliable, unthrottled cheaper internet service? Well , they lobbyied of course. They tried to create regulation that specifically prevented Google from providing such consumer friendly service.

Luckikly for consumers Google has deep pockets as well. Note its not that Google isn't evil, its just that their business model favors the consumers more when it comes to fast cheap realiable internet. So far they have been able to succesfully call the telecoms bluff of providing such service at reasonable prices .

Second thing the Telecom industry did was to magically provide double the speeds for the SAME price using existing infrastructure to their customers where Google fiber was implemented . Proving again that the only thing holding them back from doing this earlier was the lack of motivation (ie: Competition).

Their third strategy is to put their heads in the sand and tell people they don't need fast , realiable , cheap internet while their team of lawyers tries to find a way to stop Google.

By the way I pay more ($85) for my 50 MB Down and 10 Up service than what google charges ($70) for 1GB up and down unthrottled direct fiber.

The bottom line is the telecom industry has the profit margin and money to reinvest back into their business , but they don't because the lack of competition. Competion is the biggest factor why we are being nickled to death with subpar service . Its also the reason why they are incorporting toll booths on the internet.

a reply to: thov420

obviously they don't understand how much porn I watch....

The US is about how much money corporations who own the government can make. It doesn't have anything to do with customer service or like. Most services are monopolies or price fixed so the customer likes/demand do not matter.

originally posted by: Painterz
I'm always astonished by what you guys in the States pay for your broadband too. My current broadband is £6 a month for unlimited bandwidth.

I only get 3.5mb/s because I live way out in the styx, and that's considered painfully slow, in a country (the UK) that is notorious for having slow broadband infrastructure.

The major reason we pay a ton is the infrastructure needed to cover the square miles in the U.S. It costs a lot to run hundreds upon hundreds of cabling across the states. People often forget the sheer land size of the U.S..

originally posted by: jjkenobi

originally posted by: Painterz
I'm always astonished by what you guys in the States pay for your broadband too. My current broadband is £6 a month for unlimited bandwidth.

I only get 3.5mb/s because I live way out in the styx, and that's considered painfully slow, in a country (the UK) that is notorious for having slow broadband infrastructure.

The major reason we pay a ton is the infrastructure needed to cover the square miles in the U.S. It costs a lot to run hundreds upon hundreds of cabling across the states. People often forget the sheer land size of the U.S..

People often forget the sheer profit margin the telecom industry makes (97% according to Craig Moffet, an analyst at the Wall Street firm Bernstein Research ) , but do to lack of competition they refuse to invest back into their industry and upgrade those infrastructure.

Heck they can even provide faster better service with existing infrastructure without doing any upgrades if they wanted to.

originally posted by: interupt42

originally posted by: jjkenobi

originally posted by: Painterz
I'm always astonished by what you guys in the States pay for your broadband too. My current broadband is £6 a month for unlimited bandwidth.

I only get 3.5mb/s because I live way out in the styx, and that's considered painfully slow, in a country (the UK) that is notorious for having slow broadband infrastructure.

The major reason we pay a ton is the infrastructure needed to cover the square miles in the U.S. It costs a lot to run hundreds upon hundreds of cabling across the states. People often forget the sheer land size of the U.S..

People often forget the sheer profit margin the telecom industry makes (97% according to Craig Moffet, an analyst at the Wall Street firm Bernstein Research ) , but do to lack of competition they refuse to invest back into their industry and upgrade those infrastructure.

Heck they can even provide faster better service with existing infrastructure without doing any upgrades if they wanted to.

www.data360.org...

ipcarrier.blogspot.com...

more like 10 to 12 percent profit.

haha.. what a joke. got a 1000MBit line here. wopwop.

this explains why 4mbps is all my phone has ever managed to achieve. but i use a computer to download and transfer via usb because its faster and i can shuffle my phone contents as necessary.

originally posted by: lightedhype
What bullcrap. The Japamese get FREE 3GBPS internet. Yes you read that ri ght - 3 GIGabytes per second.

we have to pay for our internet because the technology actually belongs to them, the US just hasnt told us yet. #mindblown

a reply to: Hoosierdaddy71

Most telecoms have their fingers in multiple industries and not just ISP. The studies that I have seen with the small profit margin don't clarify or account solely for the ISP part of the business.

Even at 10 to 12% that is billions per year earned in net income that comcast brought in.

Lastly more important than numbers which can be cooked, Google is doing what the existing telecom said was impossible.

Do you think that lack of competiion in the high speed internet market has less of an impact with the prices and speeds we are getting than infrastructure upgrades?

Forget fiber to the home, the same current cables they already have running to the homes can provide faster service than they have been providing for near Equivalent operation costs.

If infrastructure is the reason for current internet speeds and the exiting business model instead of competition.

Then why have the telecom industry been able to double speeds and drop their prices for customers in markets where google fiber has been implemented or the minute that Google announces a new fiberhood?

originally posted by: Hoosierdaddy71
I think you Europeans forget how big the USA is. The amount of distance from one coast to the other is kind of staggering. Then add in population density.
We prolly have more unpaved roads than most of your countries have paved roads. Infrastructure take time and money.


I looked it up and the United Kingdom is slightly small than the state of Oregon. That's just an perspective builder.

Funny how US do not seem to be able to do what Finland and Sweden already do with the small population density.

www.telegraph.co.uk...

www.telegraph.co.uk...

originally posted by: Danowski
How come the internet in the USA is so damn slow?

Here's a thread that talks about why internet speeds are slow here. I can't tell you if he's right or wrong but here's the link and you all can make up your own minds.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

* Providers lobby for deregulation
* Providers allowed deregulation
* Providers divide geographical areas into monopolies - merging as required
* Providers provide least amount of service for highest prices
* ....profit.

Guess where you factor in their plan?

It's not about providing you with fast internet. It's about charging you the most money whilst providing the least amount of service.

No cap and I'm getting 45/6, with 1gbps starting to roll out in the metro area. Should be less than a year before it's available here.

The US has a lot of landmass, and even more redtape. It's going to take a while before most everyone has access to 25mbps+. You have an option. Move.

originally posted by: pl3bscheese
No cap and I'm getting 45/6, with 1gbps starting to roll out in the metro area. Should be less than a year before it's available here.

Where exactly are you located and what service provider do you have that is going to rollout 1gbps in the metro area ? Also what are you currently paying and what are you projected to pay for the 1gbps

The US has a lot of landmass, and even more redtape. It's going to take a while before most everyone has access to 25mbps+. You have an option. Move.

The red tape was created by the telecom Oligopoly themselves. They even tried to lobby to change the existing regulations to specifically target Google fiber and stop them from providing fast 1GBPS internet for 70 bucks a month.

Also don't forget about the revolving door policy between the telcom lobbyiest and the FCC. IF their is any red tape its their doing and they did it for a reason:
www.opensecrets.org...

a reply to: interupt42

AT&T in the D/FW metro area.

They're expanding 1gbps service into many areas this year:

****

Don't mind what they say about a cap. It's the same cap for all of u-verse that isn't enforced. It could be in the future, but hasn't been for the last year I've been on it, and many report it's never been enforced for u-verse.

****

25 metro areas, in 79 cities. Sounds good to me! Not only that, it's one of 3 providers offering 1gbps service.

****


As for how the red tape came to be, I'm not going to buy anyone's word on this site. Sorry! I'm sure it's a bit more complicated than many make it seem.