More cable users are consuming 1TB of data per month, face fines for exceeding caps

hahahaha hilarious, and some people believe they aren't scammed...naive....

 

Keep in mind that video that's delivered via IPTV and DVB-C is not the same as online streaming. I believe most ISP's in Europe make use of "fair use'' policy. But as bandwidth gets bigger and bigger, these type of problems will become a thing of the past.

 

Comcast usage soars 34% to 200GB a month, pushing users closer to data cap
Median usage hit 200GB, but Comcast won't say how many use a full terabyte
April 26, 2019
https://arstechnica.com/information...0gb-a-month-pushing-users-closer-to-data-cap/

 

From what I read in this thread you all should feel privelleged to have the speed and data limits you get. I'm in the country and only option is satellite internet that gives me up to but not usually 12mbs with a data limit of 10 Gb per month wich means no video unless I use my Internet providers free zone which is 12am - 5am and that means either sleeping away the next day or or totally out of it due to lack of sleep.

Also what I get out of this thread is that American companies motto: milk the user for all they can get while European Companies is give the user what they want.

 

Sorry but you seem to be contradicting yourself. We all should feel privileged to be milked? No.

And while certainly getting milked may be what's happening in some areas (internet costs, prescription medicine and medical costs, as examples), there are other areas where things are much more affordable here. The costs of computer parts, for example, seem to be pretty high elsewhere (if they can even be found). Food tends to be plentiful and affordable in comparison to many other countries. The nationwide average for a gallon of gas (petrol) this morning is $2.86 per US gallon. That equates to €2.55. Note that 1 US gallon = 3.79 liters.

So privileged is not the right word. There are many who would feel privileged to be able live out in the country and away from city life. And is it a privileged to be forced to pay a small fortune every month just the get those internet speeds that are needed to view those videos without constant buffering?

It is my experience (having lived in Portugal, the UK and Germany - and the US) that European companies are in it for maximum profit and do NOT willingly give the users what they want. It is you who are privileged to have governments with members who are actually willing to come together with meaningful compromises and pass (and enforce) better consumer protection laws!

The grass is always greener... .

 

Now that I think of it, this is the way that ISP's can sabotage so called cord cutters. If you limit the amount of data they can download, you can force them to use a DVR provided by the ISP, instead of devices like Apple TV and Roku. Because on the DVR, "video on demand" will be delivered via IPTV. So this way you can force people to continue to subscribe to an "all in one" package, with that I mean Internet + TV + Phone.

 

In my country last data caps were popular up to mid of 00's. Since then ISP just limit bandwidth/speed. Data caps don't exists. Well, actually bandwidth is some form of data cap as somebody can't exceed limit imposed by equation: time * bandwidth / month. Maybe USA's ISPs should stop overselling bandwidth and upgrade their infrastructure?

 

@ Bill_Bright if you enjoy the privilege of being milked out of money then so be it, I on the other hand despise companies taking advantage of its consumers.

May I also remind you this thread is about data consumption and not "The costs of computer parts, for example, seem to be pretty high elsewhere (if they can even be found). Food tends to be plentiful and affordable in comparison to many other countries. The nationwide average for a gallon of gas (petrol) this morning is $2.86 per US gallon. That equates to €2.55. Note that 1 US gallon = 3.79 liters."

Why should I feel privileged to pay a small fortune just because I live in the country, what makes it acceptable for people living in the city to pay less? Kids are born in the country without any choice why should they have to pay more?

http://www.niemanwatchdog.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Ask_this.view&askthisid=186

Through most of the 1990s, the United States led the world in high-speed connectivity. Yet according to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the United States, despite having the most broadband connections, has stumbled to 16th in broadband technology and continues to fall.

This situation has directly harmed this country’s technology edge, and makes the U.S. a backwater compared to South Korea, Japan and even Slovenia.

By 2006, according to telecommunication companies’ own documents, 86 million customers in the United States should have received 45 Mbps service. In fact, South Korea and Japan do even better: they routinely offer 100 Mbps connections in both directions, uploading and downloading, for around $40 per month. But in the United States, the best connections top out at 1/3 this speed and cost 400% more—and very few places even have access to the new fiber-optic services being offered. The United States once led the world in Web technology. What happened?

The answer is, the merger of the phone companies that control the phone networks decreased competition. Instead of deploying the high-speed fiber-optic lines they promised, they were content to collect profits, tinker with existing copper connections instead of rewiring, and roll out inferior DSL services. The FCC defines anything above 200 Kbps as broadband (1000 Kbps = 1 Mbps), allowing them to claim that Americans have broadband access. However, this definition is a politically-driven embarrassment for technologists, the equivalent of two tin-cans with string.

Yet—and here is the most troubling part—the phone companies got paid anyway. Through tax breaks and increased service fees, Verizon and the old Bells reaped an estimated $200 billion since the early 1990s to improve subscriber lines in the United States. And what have American consumers received? The most common DSL Service over the old copper networks tops out at 768 Kbps in most areas—a hundred times slower than routine connections in other countries. (There are faster, more expensive versions of DSL, but most have a top speed of 1-3 mbps in one direction, and it varies based on how far a person lives from a network hub.)

 

Huh? I never said that. In fact specifically said "No" to that.

I am afraid you missed the whole point of my reply. You said, "you all should feel privelleged to have the speed and data limits you get." Yet you yourself pointed out our speeds are poor compared to elsewhere.

So you contradicted yourself in your original post and in fact, you just contradicted yourself again here when you [correctly] pointed out that the US is falling behind much of the world. And I agree - so what's to feel privileged about?

I will say this in defense of the US. Part of the reason the US is falling behind is due to the vast size of the US. South Korea is about the size of the state of Mississippi which ranks just 32 in size among the 50 US states. And Mississippi is 6 times bigger than Slovenia. So how hard (and expensive) would it be to string a fiber backbone from end-to-end in Slovenia? It would be a cheap piece of cake!

There are vast open areas with 100s of miles between cities in the US. That is not seen in those other countries. Upgrading infrastructures on the scale needed in the US is many times more costly than it is in the densely populated countries you noted. To do so would take lots of tax payers money - which they don't want to pay. Or it would mean much higher internet bills - which again we don't want to pay. And you say I enjoy the privilege to be a part of that? No way!

 

Your the one that said we all should feel privileged to be milked. And if I lived in the city then I probably wouldn't have replied to this post in the first place So other side of the world best internet for the dollar, here in US city best internet for the dollar and in last place live in country and pay the most for most unreliable and severely data capped service.

And yes I do believe your internet service as is mine is poor compared to the rest of the world and mine is even more poor than yours because I live in the country.

 

How does that explain Japan?

 

Hey, maybe Musk will come to the rescue

 

No I didn't. Why are you making stuff up? That's just no cool. Everyone can plainly go up and see exactly what I said. It was a question, and answer.And I will repeat it just for you.

 

Your just not whistling Dixie on that. I too am nestled in a rural town area and get my supposedly hi-speed net connection via wireless to/from where else? a water tower some 4 blocks away on a hillside. And that's ok. What's not ok is that within the past year (yes only the past year), the ISP has introduced THROTTLING Arggg!! between roughly 5 pm (when they go home) and doesn't recover until after midnight to predictable levels. Most folks including myself are in bed by then. So when the throttling begins i'm barely in from work long enough to receive the full compliment laid out in terms that I agreed to some 10 years ago. I don't recall any notice either by USPC mail or email of this throttling however it's what happens. During the worse point of it the PC responds exactly the same as when I was on Windows 98 with 56K Modem speed way back when. Unacceptable by any standard but what can we do?

 

You probably should include population density instead of just area of USA. More people means more people paying for service.
Anyway distances between cities doesn't matter that much: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_mile

 

just thought I would throw this in the pot. I feel very fortunate here in Oklahoma to get 100 meg cable internet and unlimited data very reasonable. I remember the days when we had to settle for 6/8 megs.

 

Comcast incorrectly charged 2,000 customers for exceeding data cap
Comcast issues refunds after software bug caused inaccurate data-meter readings
October 9, 2019
https://arstechnica.com/information...harged-2000-customers-for-exceeding-data-cap/

 

ANALYSIS: The Average Household Will Surpass ISP’s 1TB Data Caps Within 3 Years
May 5, 2020
https://decisiondata.org/internet/a...ll-surpass-isps-1tb-data-caps-within-3-years/

 

Surprise: Comcast will complete rollout of data caps everywhere in 2021
The ISP started imposing 1TB data caps back in 2016
November 24, 2020
https://www.techspot.com/news/87719-surprise-comcast-complete-rollout-data-caps-everywhere-2021.html