Mildly Infuriating

Screen manufacturers just did a similar thing with the jump from 1080p to 4k

The 1080 part of the original number referred to the number of pixels from top to bottom, 4k refers to left to right. 4k is actually only 2160 from top to bottom though (at the same aspect ratio).

So they quadrupled the number when it should have only doubled, and it was entirely a marketing thing.

Ars reported on this at the end of January.

Comcast reluctantly agrees to stop its misleading “10G Network” claims. Comcast said it will drop "Xfinity 10G Network" brand name after losing appeal.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/01/comcast-to-stop-calling-entire-network-10g-as-name-is-ruled-misleading/

You are conflating Internet service speed and mobile generations. I work for an ISP. I hear this all the time. Especially since there's also "5G WiFi" which is 5 GHz band. People confuse it all, and it's understandable but still annoying.

My company offers 1 Gbps service. No one is getting confused by that yet, but our modems have 2.5 Gbps Ethernet ports now, and I had a customer that was outraged the other day because "Your modem is only 2.5 G and all my devices use 5G! You need to send me a 5G modem!!" FFS

Pretty sure they're getting sued on 10g.

But 5g is bullshit too.

The telecoms agreed what threshold of improvement warranted a "new g" but they sell more funa when the number goes up.

So they started making up sub versions of 4g and then all agreed to have 5g before meeting the threshold for it.

It was hilariously reading the presser on NBCComcrap talking about how 10G DOCSIS development is progressing and they could almost hit 10Gbps in labs on the downlink but uplink would only be a few hundred megabits tops. Like, none of those numbers are worth selling a marketing brand of "10G". Real fiber Internet can hit it, my provider offers 10Gbps/10Gbps. That could be called "10G" - if we continued to conflate speed with generations like Comcrap tried to do.

I really wish the FCC would step up and slap all these companies perpetuating these weird lie terms the last half a decade.

I am so, so, SO glad I'm now in a home with access to fiber Internet. Real, 2 gigabit symmetric fiber.

The cable company keeps sending me glossy ads in the mail - several per week - trying to get me to go back to 1/4 the bandwidth at the same price. Uhhhh... no.

ITU defined 4G in 2008 as wireless connectivity with speed of 100 megabits per second for mobile users and 1 gigabit per second for stationary users.

LTE never achieved such speeds. It did not stop mobile operators from calling their service 4G.

ITU since then revised their definition to lower the required network speed.

5G was supposed to have network speeds of 10 gigabits per second. ITU however wisened up and are just defining it as 'fifth-generation wireless', because the mobile operators will butcher the definition anyway.

This smells a bit like the old Fuck Everything, We're Doing Five Blades.

Because of all the bullshit with subsidies etc. intended for improving broadband infrastructure being abused, my dream is:

• All the poles & lines (and access rights to them) are nationalized and then opened up for individual ISPs to service. Current ISP exclusivity contracts/agreements should be dissolved. Let them actually compete for customers with price, features and customer service.
• The government should also offer tax-funded baseline connectivity to everyone since it's effectively impossible to live in modern society without internet access. The provided speeds must be sufficient for a typical bloated framework-script-heavy site, all (meta)data/packets should be considered constitutionally protected private info not able to be monitored/scraped/sold.
• Use building out and supporting the above as a useful jobs program instead of more military adjacent stuff.

They should be forced to have a standard like a food label. Should show average speed and uptime for past 12 months

Honestly, this is the same shit the telcoms have been doing for decades. They also did it with the previous generations.

When telcoms started promoting “3G” it was a mix between networks with proper broadband speeds, and edge networks that were more like 2.5G. 4G was an even bigger dumpster fire with a very wide array of “fourth generation” specs that ranged from glorified 3G to actual next generation speeds. And 5G is a repeat of this marketing bullshit trend.

You can really see the effects of this if you get to rural coverage areas. Your phone might say it’s on 5G or 4G, and you might be experiencing shit speeds even if you have decent reception. You might be on a part of the network that the marketing department considers 4 or 5G, but doesn’t mean it’s actually fast.

IMHO, we need consumer protection laws that prevent companies from using brand names or generational buzz words to trick customers. Network speeds should be advertised in bits per second, or standardized BPS chunks.

Xfinity is Comcast. It’s incredible they were able to rebrand themselves.

Comcast can't even do symmetric speeds. I'm not sure what locations have thier best speeds but in my area, where they compete with the much more affordable but not as large coverage area offerings of fiber. The idea that they could offer even a signle gigabit level service to the majority of their customers is laughable.

I bet it did lead to a lot of confusion especially when you called up for 10GIGABITS and got offered plans in the Megabits with usage limits and overage fees and all kinds of complicated shit. I called in to cancel my service a few months back when i moved to an area with fiber again, they said "we offer gigabit too you know" and i was like , nah you kinda don't actually, but even if you did its like 3 times as expensive for just the download speeds.

I was genuinely convinced they offered 10gig service in some markets. Doesn't surprise me that its all marketing nonsense.

Just a tip for anyone who wants to know, if you have Comcast business internet they'll tell you you have to use their modem but, you can swap it out with a 3rd patty modem and use the live chat service to get it activated. Then you can send back their modem for free at a ups store. Every salesperson will tell you its not possible but it absolutely is.

Wireless "G" labeling has always mostly been marketing wank anyway.

The actual technology has used more pragmatic (if less marketing friendly) terminology.

Fuck Comcast. Even when it was clear what they were referring to, they made it seem like they were offering 10gigabit fiber service. Nope, same old service offerings. There’s some plausibility: some of us have had gigabit fiber for years and if ComCast wants to reset its reputation. One way is to jump ahead rolling out the next generation of technology. Nope. @Next generation of technology” is apparently upgrading their infrastructure to be able to achieve what they’ve sold for years

Is 200/20M asymmetric, over provisioned up the wazoo, shared across the neighborhood m, high latency, any better now that it’s relabeled?

Imagine not calling your 10 Gig network Mr Gigs.

United States of Advertising

Of course they did. They know the average person would see xfinity saying they have 10G and assume their service is 5x better than every other service.

Ads from large companies rely on people being braindead and not complaining when the product they get is a scam or false advertising. At least, that's how I see it.