Why is American internet so slow?

Discussion in 'other software & services' started by lotuseclat79, Mar 6, 2014.

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  1. bo elam

    bo elam Registered Member

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    I live in Central America, $60 plus 15% tax is the price for my combined telephone, cable and internet service bill. Its all bundled together. My download speed is 5MB. I think the price is pretty high for my country and 5MB is the best speed that I can get over here. But 5MB is really all I need for what I do. And I get it any time, day or night. No limits on downloads. So, its OK.

    Edit: The reason why speed is so slow here compared to other parts of the world is simple, lack of competition. In the past 10 years, Carlos Slim bought out anyone who did cable and internet and the telephone company from the state. So he can offer internet as a take it or leave it kind of product.


    Bo
     
    Last edited: Mar 11, 2014
  2. DoctorPC

    DoctorPC Banned

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    I haven't had a wired land-line in almost 12 years. I was the first person I knew to have VOIP, and as an early adopter, went through some growing pains.. Sunrocket anyone? But I have been with my same provider for years, and have only had 1-2 outages over the last 5 years.. VOIP - with a good provider, is at least, if not more reliable than land line phone companies.

    Most of you people missed the terrible old days, where Ma-Bell charged $300-$900 a month for NORMAL phone service. They had these ridiculous calling areas, where the guy 6 doors down cost me $.36 cents a minute to call, but the guy next door was free. I saved an old phone bill, it was $1250.00.. That's why I was one of the earliest adopters of VOIP. I saw it as an escape for a horrendously corrupt bell conglomerate.

    Also, who needs phone jacks in the home? With WiFi and Bluetooth they are completely unnecessary. When I do low voltage wiring we don't even wire homes for RJ-11 anymore - seriously - I haven't run one in a new home in a couple of years.
     
  3. BerserkerPup

    BerserkerPup Registered Member

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    Why is American internet so slow?

    Because there is no competition for the services in most areas of the country so the ISPs can charge whatever they want for a basic service level and then charge you more for the higher speeds needed for anything more than reading email.

    The government agencies that should be looking out for the public interest in this matter are headed by people who formerly worked or lobbied for the broadband industry and/or who will go to work for it after they leave office. There is no incentive for them to try to lower prices, increase competition, or increase speeds across the board because less profit for the ISPs means lower value on their stock shares and lower potential future salaries.
     
  4. Rasheed187

    Rasheed187 Registered Member

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    @ DoctorPC

    Nice to hear that VOIP has been so stable for you. I´ve been using it for 6 months now without any problems. However I´ve worked on helpdesks, and it´s just ridiculous how many people are having technical problems, mostly because of the modem. I don´t see VOIP as an innovation, land lines work just fine, plus you can plugin a phone inside any room, no need to connect it to a modem, that´s just silly to me. :rolleyes:

    Funny story, that´s quite a lot of money. I switched to VOIP because it saves me about 200 euro a year. But I never had any problems with land line telephony. And I will probably still need one because of my alarm system, that I´m planning to install. :)
     
  5. DoctorPC

    DoctorPC Banned

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    I have a phone in each room, not plugged in to the wall. They connect directly to the base phone, then the base phone is wired into the VOIP modem. But OOMA uses bluetooth devices, so you can use your smart phone, or any other BT phone/device anywhere in your home. (it's encrypted too, and you can use your smart phone to answer your home phone)

    I have an alarm system as well, but mine connects through cellular networks. No cables to cut, and actually much more secure than a land line. Most good crooks know to snip the phone wire, but most aren't prepared for a cellular based alarm system, which would require them to have a cell jammer to defeat it.
     
  6. jadinolf

    jadinolf Registered Member

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    I would kill for 2.:mad:
     
  7. Rasheed187

    Rasheed187 Registered Member

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    Yes, that´s exactly my point, I don´t want to connect a phone to a freaking modem. IMO phones (wireless or not) should receive the signal straight out of the wall. VOIP is crap IMO, but let´s agree to disagree. ;)

    Never really thought of that, but I don´t think that the crooks over here are that advanced AFAIK.
     
  8. c2d

    c2d Registered Member

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    Bosnia
    I pay $20 a month and get 10 Mb/1 Mb here in Bosnia.
     
  9. roger_m

    roger_m Registered Member

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    My internet speed continues to be abysmal at times.

    Right now I'm getting 2.75Mbps download speed, which is pretty bad, but it still quite usable for web surfing, just not the best for doing big downloads.

    A few days ago it was around 7Mbps which is quite reasonable. However, yesterday afternoon I was getting around .5Mbps, which is basically unusable. Initially it was running just slightly faster so I logged into the router and rebooted, and after this the internet was slower. I also tried power cycling it, which made no difference. This was surprising, since rebooting the router when the internet is slow, usually leads to faster speeds.

    When the guy I live with comes home in a few days, I will call the ISP (they may need to talk to him first, since the account is in his name) and see if they can offer any solutions.
     
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