Well, it turns out the discounted internet I’ve been getting from Charter (for the past 10 years) came to an end. Unless you are a new customer or have the “triple pay” it costs like $58/mo. I don’t need 30mpbs, 10mpbs is fine for what I do … and would happily pay $30/mo for it.
But no luck, Charter is like “Everybody wants really fast internet”, so 30mpbs is the slowest we offer. As a nerd, I blame other stuff … bad programming, too much javascript, not enough RAM (I have a portable netbook that I bring around the house), even the website is overloaded, but seldom is it my 15mpbs connection that is the bottleneck. But Joe Blow will just blame the internet for being slow.
C’mon people, the Bandwidth of a DVD is only about 4mpbs and Metflix is barely above that.
People complain about bandwidth caps. I’m all for them. Why should I subsidize others .5 TB a month use when I use maybe 20-40GB/month?
To me, it appears to be
- Charter: $58/mo 30mpbs
- CenturyLink: $39/mo 3mpbs (based on my address)
- Airfiber: $40/mo 3mbps (can’t find pricing anymore)
- Satellite: $70/mo for even slower than that
- Fiber optic: ??? There is a line across the street from me…not sure who to call
- Ronja: Look it up…pretty cool, but you need line of sight and someone willing to share
- Tethering my phone: $15/mo, 2mpbs … until they cut me off for TOS violation
- WiFi from neighbors: $0/mo, varies … but everyone in the area locked down their connection
- Dialup … requires a phone line and ends up costing like $39/mo anyways … but this is 2013 and why are we even discussing this?
- T1: Slow and expensive … is there some benefit that I don’t know about?
There really is a need for a $20/mo 5mpbs service for all the people in the area who can’t afford the outrageous costs of internet today. You can pick up a computer for $25 to $50 that is perfectly fine for browsing, keeping in contact and learning … possibly to help with employment and bettering oneself, but it seems more and more the internet is for the well to do.
