I’m an unfortunate captive of the oligopoly of the internet industry in the USA. In many places, you have 2-3 choices of internet, and all of them suck ass. I’m in this situation. All internet providers in my area have a 1-1.5 terabyte data cap. So when I download Call of Duty for 250 gb and it fails and has to update or reinstall, I’ve wasted 500 gb, and have now reached 50% of my data cap in just 1 day. There are crazy fees, for example, Cox Cable says:
If you go over, we’ll automatically add 50 gigabytes of data for $10 to your next bill. That’s enough for about 15 hours of streaming HD video. If you use that 50 gigabytes, we automatically add another 50 gigabytes for $10 and so on until you reach our $100 limit of data overage charges or until your next usage cycle begins.
So your $90 a month internet can easily become $190 a month, which is fuckin criminal, like that is so scummy and asinine how that can even be legal. But it is perfectly legal. The FCC is also looking into these data caps but now that we have a new anti-federal government president elect… This is probably toast… Nothing will change now that most federal agencies are about to be deleted.
From a technology standpoint too, nothing is really getting better
Comcast is still using Coax instead of Fiber Optic and desperately trying to convince people that somehow, someway coax can be just as good. Do with that info what you will, I have no opinions on it. There was a Federal program started recently to expand rural internet access, which will probably be gutted in 2025 leaving many without suitable internet again. Fiber Optic is fast, but still, not new technology, and doesn’t solve a critical issue… It doesn’t matter if you have 2 Gigabit internet if no one in the world is uploading even half that fast. A single download on Steam is like 450 Mbps, Epic Games launcher is horrifically slow. I get like 120 Mbps max when downloading Fortnite updates even with 1500 Mbps internet hard wired to my router with top tier hardware
It’s just sad to think about the future of internet in the USA, and knowing we’ll be imprisoned by these data caps for the foreseeable future.
Unlimited full fibre here in the rural nothern Highlands of Scotland for £35 per month.
Your internet seems similar to your politicians: useless and expensive.
that’s one hell of a free burn
I pay $70 a month for google fiber and it’s legit a thing that keeps me in the city I’m in because better is absolutely fucking rare.
This isn’t me trying to flex, this is me crying because I’d rather be in Scotland.
Weather’s shit a lot of the time here in Scotland.
Recently Highland & Lothian Broadband rolled out full fibre here in the Northern Highlands - the installation of which was government funded. I’m pretty rural so I grabbed the basic package at £35 per month (about $45) and it’s more than enough for my needs. However the top package 2000Mbps (up & down) will set you back £54.99 per month (approx’ $71), although that’s an introductory offer and goes up to £89.99 (approx’ $116) after 24 months. I can’t fault the service. No caps, no limits, router is modern with WiFi 6 although I ethernet most things using my old router as a switch. I also don’t seem to be blocked from any websites. My previous provider, BT Broadband, blocked me from The Pirate Bay requiring me to use a VPN. Not so with Highland Broadband. Straight in, no problems.
Mine is the basic package for the price I’m doing, so your system is still nice.
I’ll honestly take the weather being shit. I live where there is no chance in hell government will fund a thing and that was before the current election. And the weather here is humid as fuck with either 100 degrees F to Below 0 with the humidity being the only predictable thing, maybe a week of spring and fall each. Oh, and tornadoes.
Aye, people criticise the Scottish government but they have short memories. They forget what it was like before devolution and particularly prior to SNP rule. Labour and the Tories never gave a fuck about Scotland. They still don’t. The only sadness is that we never got full independence. Whilst there is indeed a lot to criticise with the SNP there’s also much that they have given us and making sure rural communities get decent internet access is just one of those things. Hell, my broadband is better up here than it was when I lived in the central belt. The National Health Service works better up here too, and free health with free prescriptions has got to be a good thing. Down in England they still have to pay for prescriptions. Honestly, I don’t understand why 55% voted to stay in the UK back in 2014. I guess it’s like people voting Trump - there’s just a lot of fucking dummies out there.
So the US did in fact have a process where the government did give money to get broadband to the rural. But as is the nature with this country, was not a federal workforce, but was a company based one. The companies pocketed the money, got a few people hooked up, sat on their asses, then when people complained at them years later they responded they didn’t have enough money to connect people.
And good lord I’d take English National Health Service over the US “pay an insurance company to argue why they shouldn’t pay for your healthcare”
I do have a question on the independence, over here in the states the conversation was that Scotland stayed because to break from UK would be requiring a separate entry into EU with a lot less benefits because England was one of the special ones. Always figured that Scotland might make another attempt after Brexit, is there something I missed? I admit y’alls politics I don’t quite get. Probably a lot like my talking individual state politics to you guys.
Scotland stayed in the UK because people bought into the fear-mongering being spread by the UK government. There were several fronts the UK targeted us with. Pensions was one (which scared all the old folks), currency was another (even though there was no real reason we couldn’t continue to use the pound). The economy was also targeted under the argument that we were too small a country to sustain ourselves, despite having a similar population size to Norway who survive extremely well as an independent nation. Between oil, tourism, gaming/tech industry, and whisky exports we could have not only survived but thrived. One other argument was that we’d have to reapply for entry into the EU and that staying in the UK guaranteed we’d remain in Europe, only for English voters to vote the UK out of the EU several years later. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot. Scotland voted overwhelmingly to remain in the EU but it didn’t matter as it was a UK wide election, so basically we were told to shut the fuck up and put up. This should have been a significant change in circumstances that would trigger another independence referendum, but such referendums require UK parliament approval and the Tory scum wouldn’t let us hold one. Personally I would have been inclined to declare independence unilaterally, but given how 55% of the population were chicken-shits in 2014, it would be unlikely to happen. There’s also the cultural aspect that stops Scotland becoming independent. A large part of the population are Protestant and have been brainwashed through generations to believe in the laughable antiquated concept of King & Country. Basically Scotland has a long history of being kicked in the teeth by the English ruling class. So much so that many people have absolutely no confidence in self-determination or belief in their own ability to thrive and succeed. If only these people who feel that they need to be looked after would fuck off to the England they love so much, Scotland could move forward into the 21st century as a progressive, forward-thinking nation. Independence supporters always get labelled as rascist and anti-English, but the opposite is the truth. We’re welcoming to everyone who wants to make their home here and contribute to making the country a success - English, African, American, Chinese, whatever.
I really appreciate the dive into the politics there! As I talked with a coworker, to start understanding politics understanding historical context is important and I can keep some understanding with other countries, it’s hard enough to know the nuance of all of our states, figuring out how to get started with other countries is difficult so the primer really helps. Some of this sounds familiar over here on the antiquated thoughts driving politics that should have fallen by the wayside years ago, though I think a few of yours might be older than ours is. Friend visited the UK recently and traveled throughout, like I told him, I intellectually knew how old that area is but realizing that there were places that were historic before our country even existed is still kinda baffling. But I digress.
Having to do a dive into the Tories as I just knew them as your conservatives, it’s interesting that both the UK Conservative party and Scottish Conservatives definitely have a lot that I look at and go “That really does look like (Pre-Trump) Republicans” then every once in a while I see them supporting something that I realize if a Democrat would try to bring forward they’d be shouted down as being a communist. But what’s most fascinating dichotomy between our countries is your conservatives are staunchly fighting to keep the UK together, as you say wouldn’t allow you to hold a referendum after making you all leave the EU. Over in the States our Conservatives have gotten in bed with the US South which constantly yells about and threatens to secede again, and the Republican party is the one where you’re going to find the confederate (not the confederate, flag, Virigina Battle Flag but that’d involve them knowing their own ‘heritage’) flag all over the place so you could argue our conservatives are more seperationists. Growing up with this creates a bit of a knee-jerk reaction to be opposed to splitting, though like with the pulling out of the EU and as you described there’s actually a lot of ability to be successful to sustain yourselves that’s makes sense… vs our guys have the likes of most of our southern states who cry how much they hate the federal government, yet percentage-wise are some of our most reliant on federal funds.
It’s hard to know what the right move is in this post-truth world as we all have our biases and legitimate reasons for thinking the way that we do. I remember around the turn of the millennium thinking that the rise of the internet would herald in an new era of enlightenment where access to information would increase the intelligence of literally everyone. Boy, was I wrong. Turns out the Information Age should have been called the Disinformation Age.
I think the rise of Trump is a reaction to a broken system that has become too corrupt and too big to sustain itself. It might not be all bad in the long term, but right now it feels like the world is falling apart. If you look at all systems (particularly biological) they tend to eventually decentralise to function more effectively. The lungs, liver, heart, kidneys, stomach all function independently from each other yet work together to benefit the whole, trading off excess resources for things that they lack yet need. Evolution created this system from what was a primordial soup of waring organisms, viruses, cells, bacteria, etc. Perhaps humanity is on the cusp of that transition into a more coherent functioning planetary system. Countries should use the resources they have and trade the excess for things that they don’t have but need, much like the organs in the body do. Perhaps America needs to decentralise and has gotten too big to function effectively. I don’t know, but these are the kind of things I think about now and again.
There’s a lot about the way the world works that makes little sense so something has got to change. Take a simple example like prawns caught off the west coast of Scotland. How can it be more efficient to send them to China to get packaged before returning again to be consumed? Utter madness! But that’s the centralised system of exploitation. It’s cheaper, but neither effective nor healthy.
Take the banking crisis where money was thrown at the banks to bail them out. What a dumb idea that achieved absolutely nothing. It was like sticking a band aid on a gunshot wound. It stopped the bleeding for a while, but didn’t fix the problem. Then you look at Iceland who did the complete opposite to everyone else and let their banks fail. The bankers ended up in jail like they rightly should have done and now their economy is booming.
I don’t know where I’m going with all this, I kind of fell down a rabbit hole of hoping that there’s a light at the end of the dark tunnel we all seemingly find ourselves in.
I normally don’t like to admit this but you’re right. OP needs to move.
In all honesty and without any sarcasm that was obviously present in my previous comment, looking in at the US as an outsider, I don’t hold out much hope for America. It’s not just Team Trump, it’s the whole system. The previous lot weren’t much better (and often sometimes worse). Everything seems extremely polarised which will never pan out well. Big corporations seem to control everything (from internet and food to finance and pharma), there’s no free health care (a human right considered by many countries but viewed as communism by America). I could go on and on, but I would only sound unnecessarily negative. A good idea would be to get out and get off an obvious sinking ship. This is probably easier said than done, but there’s always a way. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not perfect elsewhere, but I think once the US collapses it’ll be a wake-up call for a lot of countries who will also have to adjust having relied so heavily on America through trade as well as culturally. If too big to fail was a real thing, then we wouldn’t have history books full of empires collapsing. With all sincerity, good luck.
The only hope I have is that the next generation will bring more love. There is a lot of disenfranchisement due to the changes over the last 40 years. The lasting effects of coal and steel work reduction, offshoring of jobs, minority rights improving, immigration changing demographics. All of these have been very strange and alarming for a lot of people my age and older. It’s all normal to my kids though.
You’re right tho. Empires rise and fall. The whole world is fucked if we’ve hit our peak.
Don’t the numbers indicate the opposite is happening. I fear for my children because I know they are loving and caring.
Unfortunately, most counties don’t want us Americans (and I don’t blame them).
Edit: Unless you’re rich that is.
Turkey (Asia Minor) reporting, it’s 1 Gbps unlimited for $25.
Hardcore capitalism bangs you hardcore for even human-right level things. Health, education and infrastructure should be the State’s responsibility, subventions doesn’t cut it.
France reporting, same price and that’s because I’m using the more expensive provider that is the most reliable in my rural area.
Our politicians are completely useless though.
Yeah, but yall are actually cool and bust out the guillotines every once in a while.
I think you just described the US as a whole.
I pay $79 AUD for 250Mb download / 20Mb upload.
And yet here I am in the USA with 8/8 Gbps fiber with no caps. Though I do pay $185 a month. I live in a Red state, and in a metro area, but not near the metro core, in unincorporated county land.
last 30 days stats to prove no caps:
What do you have for network equipment? I have 1G symmetrical unlimited, but anything faster seems to require a jump to much more expensive networking. And even then, most user equipment can’t support that
I have basically a full rack of equipment. Here’s the network side of it all. My desktop is 2 SPF+ fiber connections back to the core switch. Tons of stuff in my rack is all 10gbps or 40gbps.
Dual opnsense firewalls (top 2 slots, dual 40gbps connecting to core switches), though one is inactive until they let me buy static addresses. I run some business stuff on this. Boatloads of homelabbing and self-learning.
If you want to do full IPS/IDS, then yes you need some horsepower. But just connection with basic rules there’s plenty out there that’s not super expensive. Ubiquiti has their dream machine line which even the “cheap” $400 one can do 10gbps (2gbps with ips, or something like that. I dunno, I don’t keep tabs on them).
I didn’t stop any active connections/downloads happening on the network. I very likely had a gig of other stuff going elsewhere on the network.
Their “smart-nid” is also a router… so that works too, but I don’t trust it and in my setup it’s in transparent mode.
Edit: Formatting sucked
Cool setup!
I’ve never had caps here in the US, and while my current internet is kinda slow (50/25), it’s because I deliberately chose a lower tier because we don’t actually need more. I could get gigabit (1000/500) for $75/month or 10G for $200/month, and my city is working w/ an org to build out muni fiber, which will probably cut costs a bit (and hopefully improve reliability, ours goes out like once/month for 15 min or so).