this post was submitted on 26 Jul 2023
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It's 2023. Anything less than symmetrical gigabit is nonsense. We shouldn't have to settle for overpriced crumbs from ISPs.
Symmetrical gigabit is a bit much for a baseline. Should it be widely available for all, and for a good price? Absolutely. But plenty of people (probably a majority even) could be adequately served by something like 300 down/100 up as a baseline tier.
Let me go ahead and steal a quote from JFK:
“We choose to [build nationwide symmetrical gigabit fiber] in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win, and the others, too.”
It’s not about what people need. It’s about building infrastructure for new services and applications.
Besides, digging a trench is digging a trench. Just put in the fiber. It’s 2023.
imo the asymmetry only serves to upsell content creators to business plans. I do agree with you on the speeds though, gigabit is a bit overblown for average joe but it should be an option in most places for people that need it (Content Creators, WFH Visual Artists, Garage Startups)
Today, maybe. But what about in ten years’ time?
IMO the focus should be on lowering the prices. A lot of people in my country still rely on spotty mobile data as their primary internet. Imagine 100 mbps fiber for $10 a month, that would be awesome.
Lol In Italy I get gigabit for about 6€
Edit: whoops thats for my unlimited calls, text and 150gb 5g mobile plan. I pay a whopping 30€ for actual-unlimited-not-rate-limited-after-a-TB gigabit.
Though let's be honest, this is not something generally available.
It is throughout Europe. We’ve been getting hosed in the states for years.
Uh, definitely not the case in a few other countries. Actually, gigabit/6€ would be an extreme outlier: https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/country_price_rankings?displayCurrency=USD&itemId=33®ion=150
https://www.cable.co.uk/broadband/pricing/worldwide-comparison/#speed
A 1 Gbps up/down in Denmark is around 40-50€, and low speeds like 100/100 is more like 25-35€.
Same for Norway and Sweden. Everything is unlimited of course.
O RLY? Which ISP?
Right, it’s actually 30€ with TIM, recently upgraded from the €15 plan, my bad. Obviously a huge and glaring oversight. Tell me again what people are paying in the states for a percentage of that speed again and reflexively defend the shit system, please. €6 is what I pay for my unlimited calls, text and 150gb mobile data plan.
I don't disagree, but I think even just setting it to 500M symmetrical would be a MASSIVE improvement and a more achievable goal. Few regions right now are equipped for fiber and even fewer homes.
Most homes in the US have a coax connection, and with current tech coax connections can do a little over a gig bandwidth total (up+down). That said, we should be quickly ratcheting up to 500/500 while the fiber rollout hopefully accelerates.
The depressing part is how much fiber is out there, but dark or locked in ridiculous agreements with private owners that will keep it from being the municipal service it deserves to be.
The last house I owned had fiber in the front yard that the ISP refused to hook up. The entire neighborhood (300+ houses) had the same situation. Verizon laid the fiber, and Frontier refused to let anyone use it.
Why does it matter if it’s 500/500 or 1000/1000? Once the fiber is there it makes no difference. In fact, 500Mbit symmetrical is probably more expensive to deploy.
Because the fiber isn't there. We could achieve 500/500 on current networks without running fiber to every single home. I'm just saying it's a good interim goal as we work towards a full fiber rollout.
Funny thing is, they are selling vapor. They are renting the usage of equipment, nothing more. There's no finite amount of internet and you have to use it carefully. Sure there's limits in that equipment, but essentially prices are all over-inflated. In my shitty little country I have 350/150 for around 15€, 300 channels TV included. For gigabit I'd pay a bit more, around 30€.