Metered Broadband Thoughts

jimbo45 said:

Public Wi-Fi or broadband that is 100% supplied by Wi-Fi I'd agree but slow broadband via the PHONE has really no problems for unlimited or un-metered access --- the slow rate in any case is self limiting if too many subscribers are trying to use it at the same time -. There's Satellite technology too these days to provide signals to the EXCHANGE from which wired connections (standard telephone) can be used to connect subscribers.

Dialup is not Broadband. It has a most 33.3kbps and cannot go any higher due to the narrow band of signal that phone lines pass.

If you mean DSL, then DSL is extremely limited by distance, and typically can't service anyone further away than 18,000 feet from a DSLAM which has to be in a central office or branch office.. That 18,000 feet is measured by the way the copper is laid out, not "as the crow flies". So you can often be 6 or 7 blocks from a CO and still be greater than 18,000 feet in terms of copper distance.

DSL is almost always not possible in rural areas, and often isn't possible even in relatively modern suburbs.''

Satellite is pretty expensive as well, and also bandwidth capped. Typically as little as 1GB / month, though many offer unlimited during off-peak hours.

jimbo45 said:

I don't buy into the theory that lack of Wi-Fi frequencies is the reason companies can't provide un-metered connections. It's something else entirely -- Corporate Dollar earning / shareholder power etc. However Consumers DO have a role to play in this in a lot of places.

If they provided unlimited, unmetered connections then a small number of users would use up all available bandwidth of the limited frequency spectrums. This is slowly changing, as more spectrum is being made available now that analog TV is offline, and other bands are being opened up for auction.. but it's still VERY expensive.

jimbo45 said:

I'm not sure about the USA but the EU is quite active in removing the monopoly of a lot of the older Telecomms companies and I n most countries within the EU / EEA - especially in urban areas you get a reasonable choice of both mobile phone providers and broadband. I believe in the UK for example there are at least 3 or 4 BIG players with a lot of smaller operators -- the 4 big ones are Sky, Talk-Talk, Virgin media, Plusnet who all provide reasonably cheap unlimited broadband (in cabled areas).

For example --Talk-talk https://sales.talktalk.co.uk/ The others are all similar. I'm just quoting suppliers -- I don't know anything about their customer service etc -- my point was to say that unmetered broadband is at least in the EU /EEA is becoming more the norm than the exception.

The UK is roughly the size of two US states. It's much easier for them to upgrade their infrastructure than for the US to do so. That's why utilities tend to be monopolies, so that the companies that invest in thee infrastructure can get their money back eventually. From what I can see, talk talk only gives you unlimited 3G, not 4G. Also, from what I can tell, I can't find a 4G offering in the UK that is unlimited.

I used to have unlimited and then they changed it. I have a cap of 300gb per month, If I go over that it is 10 dollars for every 50gb that you go over it. I can't change providers as I do not want DSL so I am stuck with what I have. I don't have to use One Drive so that is one way.

BunnyJ said:

Lets put this in perspective: Texas vs Iceland:

Hi there

Add Heads of Cattle to that map and the disparity gets even larger (although I thought nearly everything in Texas was done by Horse).

Note @Mystere --I wasn't talking about DIAL UP -- I was talking about the non cabled standard phone connections where you use a splitter on the input line that provides the broadband -- this is much slower of course than the cabled fibre optic broadband but can still give around 2mbs - adequate enough if you can't get fibre optic broadband and still possible to use these types of connections in rural areas.

3/4G are provided by the mobile phone companies --some of whom may have decent data plans -- however I was considering standard broadband rather than Mobile systems.

I can't believe though in major conurbations in Texas - say Houston, Dallas,Ft Worth, St Antonio etc that it's impossible to get unmetered broadband.

BTW Best steak I ever ate was in Amarillo Tx -- took me a really long time to eat it though - the size of it !!!!.

Cheers
jimbo

jimbo45 said:

Note @Mystere --I wasn't talking about DIAL UP -- I was talking about the non cabled standard phone connections where you use a splitter on the input line that provides the broadband -- this is much slower of course than the cabled fibre optic broadband but can still give around 2mbs - adequate enough.

That's called DSL, and I addressed that quite clearly in my response. DSL is not a solution for most people.

CountMike said:

With ADSL Asymmetric DSL, which provides much faster download than upload and so saves some bandwidth, being more prevalent. It goes over normal copper telephone lines and is subject to distance limitations.

Different DSL's have different distance limitations (RADSL, ADSL, HDSL, SDSL, etc..), but mostly it's just about bandwidth allocation... I seem to recall that SDSL had a 24000 foot range way back in the day when I was not eligible for RADSL, but regardless there's a lot of limitations on DSL... lines have to be "conditioned" so that they are good quality 24 gauge copper (not 26 gauge), there can be no "extenders" and "bridges", and all junction blocks must be clean. That means a technician has to follow the copper from the CO to your doorstep at each of those little green boxes and verify the connection, and replace the terminations if necessary. But none of that will help if you're just too far away in "wire distance".