Help me choose my new ISP!

[erocker]

Why does EU get like 40/20 for $40 a mo and US people get screwed?

The US is a conglomeration of 50 states. Things very from state to state. It's like 50 little countries with one big country that leeches off of them. Where I live I pay $55 for a 75/15 connection.

 

[Easy Rhino]

The US is a conglomeration of 50 states. Things very from state to state. It's like 50 little countries with one big country that leeches off of them. Where I live I pay $55 for a 75/15 connection.

Yup. The US is a massive country. It has a massive infrastructure that provides state of the art data backbones for the entire world. The idea that the US is somehow behind is a myth.

 

[Aquinus]

Yup. The US is a massive country. It has a massive infrastructure that provides state of the art data backbones for the entire world. The idea that the US is somehow behind is a myth.

Exactly. Most internet traffic at some point or another has to travel into or at least through the US. The problem is we as consumers don't see anything near what tier 1 networks have to offer.

 

[DanishDevil]

200 ft trench? Burried! If youre going to have wire burried either encap it in pvc or use drop wire (2-5 pair cables round or flat casing). Ive had to use drop as ethernet due to being burried. Cat5 etc arent durable enuf to burry normally.

It's in 2" electrical conduit. Thanks for lookin' out though!

Try checking into some satellite internet or something.

Latency, as Aquinus said:

Latency is unacceptable for first person shooters. First post says that he wants to be able to play games on it.

Why does EU get like 40/20 for $40 a mo and US people get screwed?

As james888 said, it was my choice of lot that made ISP availability difficult. This is more farm country about a mile out from fiber for days. It's all 5 acre lots with mostly retirement-aged people living here, therefore very little demand for fast internet, and very few customers reached per mile of fiber laid vs. all the subdivisions just a few minutes away. It makes sense that they would choose this area absolute last or not at all to lay fiber.

On top of what Aquinas said, he also already made a decision on which internet speed.

I would guess Europe has better funding for infrastructure. Better internet infrastructure means cheaper better internet. The trick is how do we pay for it.

The op is also only 5 or so miles from good fast internet. It is where he decided to live that makes it so expensive.

This might be a silly question, but were there better speeds for the capped plans or is that more a matter of infrastructure?

No capped plans available here. Every ISP I called (other than satellite which I was not considering) was a business or enterprise plan. Residential looked up my address and said they couldn't service me and that was that. Business and enterprise plans typically don't come with data caps.

Because Americas Congress is lobbied by the ISP's to stop them from doing anything about the refusal for unbundling of cable etc. They're just companies that own cables, charge money for it, and instead of putting that money back into the system and upgrading the lines, it goes straight into pockets. Luckily in the EU the governments aren't as corrupt (they still get lobbied), so ISP's don't have th power to charge stupid amounts without being shit on from on high by an investigation body and charged millions for abusing market position.

That should change for the US though, title II was passed a short while ago, and all the big names cried and screamed about it. You know that when something causes a multimillion dollar company to throw it's toys out the pram, it means something good is being done for once.

UK isn't immune of course, our prime minister has a best friend who owns an ISP, that friend mysteriously was the creator of an Internet filtering system, which was then conveniently used to put a blanket filter on the entire Internet for the UK to block porn. Unfortunately it didn't work very well, blocked sex ed sites and all that. The government just cries blind "for the children!" and hopes nobody will hate on them for being lobbied in such an embarrassing manner.

At the current rate of infrastructure improvement, mobile Internet is going to overtake WAN is a couple of years, 4G is already faster than some people's Internet in rural spots around here.

My 4G is wicked fast compared to my home internet except for ping values. Then again, I've got a data cap on that so it's really of no use for me when I have a large file or high-res video that I want to watch. I think the political climate for ISPs is going to change, but our win for open internet is only a start. It will take something like Google Fiber being available in many more places or more local cities/counties offering their own ISPs to really change much of my unique situation.

Off topic:
This will not help with the issues at hand , i'm just expressing my thoughts.
I live in a poor country,but i have 1GBps at 15,7 USA $ / month. Installation cost zero. Maintenance cost 1,42$ / month. Optional you can get for another 1$ the WiFi gear, if you don't have a wireless router already with gigabit support in your home. All this with Fiber optics in your house. They call it FTTH technology.
I just upgraded to 200MBps for 10$/month . Sure you need a SSD & an i7 CPU for the 1GBps ,witch i don't have.

I have a skt478 system in my attic with a 2.4Ghz Northwood Celeron that has a 1Gbps ethernet port. In fact I used the SATA 1.5Gbps to transfer files over 1Gbps, and believe it or not, it can saturate it.

Laws my friend, laws. ISPs in the US of A are greedy and make a killing off internet service. With respect to the op, he lives very far away from any real internet solution. He had to have service *installed* there is no fiber out where he is.

At least hes not bothered by the neighbors . I got fast net but in this crowded city there is insanity and noise everywhere. We should start a poll: fast net crazy living spaces / very slow net relax living

I was in the house alone for the first time when my wife went off to help her mother with some errands, and I have to tell you it was awkwardly quiet in this house. The most noise we get it from the 50 or so canadian geese running around with their young goslings. Oh and the 100 or so other exotic birds that our next door neighbors keep (read: about 500ft away and they're the closest, so we really only hear the peacocks and one other type of bird that sounds like a cackling hyena a few times a day).

After living here for 4 weeks, I think I'd pick very slow net relax living

I live in a "city" but that's only by name. It's not like Concord has high rises or anything but, it is the state capitol. I pay something like 80USD/mo for this.

The US is a conglomeration of 50 states. Things very from state to state. It's like 50 little countries with one big country that leeches off of them. Where I live I pay $55 for a 75/15 connection.

Yup. The US is a massive country. It has a massive infrastructure that provides state of the art data backbones for the entire world. The idea that the US is somehow behind is a myth.

Exactly. Most internet traffic at some point or another has to travel into or at least through the US. The problem is we as consumers don't see anything near what tier 1 networks have to offer.

Thanks all for your discussion, stay tuned for my first month impressions! This has been an interesting transition to say the least!