I thought data caps for home internet were a thing of the past…

I’ve somewhat recently moved back to a very rural area of the Midwest. Small town. No stop lights. Biggest businesses other than the bars are Casey’s, Subway, and Dollar General.

And we have one ISP (not counting DSL) — Mediacom. When we first signed up, I had to go with the second service tier. But not because of speeds, but so I could have a reasonable 1 TB/mo data cap.

Lucky me, they increased the cap to 1.5 TB. 🙄

I hope that in my lifetime I can see ISPs regulated as a public utility.

  • Dettweiler@lemmyonline.comEnglish
    271·
    2 年前

    Home internet data caps WERE a thing of the past when Obama appointed Tom Wheeler as FCC chairman, who then pushed rulings to classify ISPs as a public utility and started enforcing net neutrality. Companies that didn’t play ball started getting fined until they fell in line. Being a former executive for a major ISP, he was very familiar with the anti-competitive practices and underhanded tricks those companies had been using for years; and he used those practices against them to finally make some pro-consumer progress for internet access in the US.

    Then, Trump came in and put Ajit Pai in charge of the FCC (no joke, my phone kept auto correcting his name to Shit Pie). Anyways, Shit Pie tore down those rulings and undid all those years of progress as part of the Trump administration’s anti-Obama initiative. Even though it was proven time and again that what he did was directly against public opinion, and that ISPs were flooding the public commentary with bot posts(some even made by dead people); Shit Pie continued to meme about himself and drink from an obnoxiously large Reese’s coffee mug while doing so. At this point, every provider of internet services has added back data caps in the US, and they have continued to increase their prices to maintain that 99.9% profit margin. They’ve also locked down more areas to prevent municipal broadband services from forming, and they’re even pushing for legislation to prevent them from ever happening.

    The current administration has done absolutely nothing. In fact, they’ve been so unremarkable, I have no idea who is in charge of the FCC, and I don’t feel like looking it up.

  • voxel@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    141·
    2 年前

    lol uncapped 500mbps fiber (actual fiber directly to your house) connection is 10-12$/month in Ukraine

  • Treczoks@lemmy.worldEnglish
    12·
    2 年前

    Well, the internet companies have successfully bribed politicians to avoid competition. This is just the normal result of everyday corruption.

    • idunnololz@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      2 年前

      Hey! I’ll have you know that Comcast and Time Warner are in the fiercest of competitions. They are practically bankrupting themselves while slashing each other’s throats. /s

  • crate_of_mice@lemm.eeEnglish
    101·
    2 年前

    Maybe you should organise a community run ISP instead?

    They’re quite common where I live, although I don’t use one myself. I still only pay 400sek for unlimited 500/500.

    • UsernameIsTooLon@lemmy.worldEnglish
      21·
      2 年前

      It’s easier to do in more rural or remote areas but cities and suburbs make it a bit harder. US prices are also fucked. I’m currently paying $62/month for 100 down and 10 up and that’s the cheapest option around us.

  • circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
    6·
    2 年前

    I pay about $80/mo and have a 1200 GB cap.

    It used to be $50 a month with no cap. But “that plan is no longer available” in my area.

    • kristoff@infosec.pubEnglish
      0·
      2 年前

      Australia looks like an interesting case. Iknow that in some countries, ISPs have to provide service to both urban and rural customers at the same price, which means that urban customers actually subsidize people living in rural areas. In some other cases, the gouvernements help pay for this.

      Isn’t there a project in Australia that the federal gouvernement is subsidizing the role-out of fibre?

      • scarilog@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        2 年前

        Idk but pricing in Australia is fucked. The fibre network isn’t that large to begin with afaik, and even if you do have fibre you have to pay an arm and a leg for good speeds.

        E.g. I pay like $70 USD a month for 100/40.

        Symmetric gigabit costs several hundred a month, they’re not intended for residential customers.

  • dmm@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6·
    2 年前

    Damn. Our symmetrical 500 mbps plan, with no caps, is USD 14 per month

    • bruhduh@lemmy.worldEnglish
      21·
      2 年前

      You’re taking about 3rd world countries internet right? Cuz in piracy subreddit comments I’ve seen that only 1st world countries still have data cap on wired internet

      • Brunacho@feddit.clEnglish
        1·
        2 年前

        third world countries are keeping up. My ISP reserves the right to throttle my bandwidth once use a certain amount of data. I have to say I haven’t noticed it do it yet. Yet being the keyword here.

    • idunnololz@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      2 年前

      I know Google isn’t well liked on Lemmy but I have to say, WebPass is pretty sweet. I was lucky enough to live in a place that was supported by WebPass and the internet was the best I’ve ever had in the US. 600$/yr (50$/mo) for 1Gbps up/down. I had it for ~2 years and my internet service got interrupted like twice in those 2 years. I worked at home too so I was online pretty much all the time.

  • Tschuuuls@feddit.deEnglish
    5·
    2 年前

    Not that you will read 300+comments, but cancel and go with starlink. They probably call you back and offer you an uncapped plan :D

    • idunnololz@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      2 年前

      It’s ok. Compeition will drive down prices! I have so many options with internet such as Comcast and Company that pretends to compete with Comcast.

  • badamsz@whemic.xyzEnglish
    3·
    2 年前

    2000/2000 Mbit fiber without a cap for $95/mo. in Maine, US.

    This does feel a bit surreal though as prior to this my options were 3/.5 Mbit DSL for $75/mo. (bonding wasn’t an option, no plans by ISP to upgrade), then 25/10 Mbit fixed wireless for $95 /mo. from a local provider (which worked when it felt like it and then was undergoing “maintenance” for weeks at a time making it unusable), then paying Spectrum a $5500+ ransom to run Cable down my driveway and then ultimately pay $115/mo. for 300/20 Mbit. Spectrum didn’t have a cap due to the Charter -> TWC acquisition consent decree but I’m sure it was coming after that expired.

    When fiber came to town everything else suddenly got cheaper but screw them, they kept raising the rates and fees when there wasn’t any meaningful competition. Fidium didn’t even charge me an install fee and I’m not under a contract. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

    • dutchkimble@lemy.lolEnglish
      1·
      2 年前

      So do your router/switches/access points/cabling etc support 2000? What about the devices’ lan ports? Curious as to to how 2000 works for home network infrastructure