Internet service & usage discussion

[RWG]

What kind of internet service do you have?  How good is it?  etc etc.

Okay, since I am living just by the chip wagon in the cottage again this summer, I, for the second straight summer, am on Bell Canada's hose-job usage based internet.  If I use 500MB or less in a month, it costs me $35.  500MB-1GB is $45.  1-3GB is $60.  3-5GB is $70, and every MB over 5GB is an extra 5 cents.  To give you an idea of how I milk out the most internet from this service, I use FireFox with javascript and images disabled.  I set all websites to use white background, with black Tahoma 11 text, except for links which are blue and go purple when clicked.  This is what it looks like;



Forgot to mention that there is basically a USB stick that I plug into my laptop, and it draws service from the cell phone towers.  It's pretty much the same as connecting your Blackberry or iPhone as a modem.  Problem?  My BlackBerry is with Telus, one of very few Canadian mobile service providers that sets up their phones to not allow the BlackBerry to be used as a modem.

So please, share your internet usage plan & stories!

[Scrambler Fanny]

Like fitty bucks a month for unlimited usage. 

[TheFlash]

No matter what you display text/backgrounds as, the same amount of html is downloaded. May as well leave sites somewhat visually appealing!

[DavidK5]

It's amazing that some Canadians will riot in the streets after their shitty team loses in the playoffs when they should really be rioting over this usage-based internet nonsense.

I imagine unlimited usage is standard from cable providers in the US.

[Matis]

Sorry, I dont have to worry about shitty internet. Sucks to be you!

[Neo]

As many of you probably remember I had notoriously bad internet for a long time, with dial-up until about 2004. This was about the time that most Australians started to have access to broadband (which I seem to remember was a few years after North America?). Back then it was awful, though - I remember moving from 56k with unlimited downloads (unlimited being useless in that scenario) to 256k with a measly 12gb downloads, which was the standard at the time. Strangely enough, it almost always lasted with me being the only user in the household, and I was able to able to watch quite a bit of TV each month. As my younger brothers grew up and used it more we moved from 256k/12gb to 1.5mbps/25gb in about '07, which was slightly better but not by much. This was all stupidly expensive mind you, at about $70US or so. Last year I finally managed to stop my dad before he signed us up for another stupid contract and switched ISPs, to 8mbps/50gb. A huge improvement but by now the family had discovered youtube so we'd almost always run out. Just recently we've got a huge boost to 20mbps but with only 60gb, which has actually made it worse. Videos load in seconds and movies in minutes so we burn through it well before the month is over, but at least we're down to about $50US/month.

Most plans are MUCH better in Australia these days, I just don't have access to them this far out. When I move in to the city shortly I'll be able to get 20mbps with unlimited downloads for $40US or so which I'd have thought was insane a few years ago (I can't wait for all the HD content I'll be streaming!). Australia has always had the problem of trying to be "fair" and offer the same options to rural towns (farmers, miners, etc) which is absurd... 95% of the population live in 5% of the country, so it would be incredibly cheap just to focus on those areas and offer alternative options to the other 5%, but what are you gonna do. At least we seem to be moving in the right direction with "unlimited downloads" becoming more common, while over in North America you seem to be having trouble with some providers started to introduce caps.

@Goose: As Thingy pointed out changing colours is useless, but disabling images + javascript is a great idea - I used the same technique at University where we only got 1gb of usage a month (don't even get me started on that).

[Infil]

My internet literally makes me cry.

[Jimbo]

I don't know how much it is separate, but I pay $80USD a month for a 1500-channel HD cable package and (what I believe) to be 5mbps internet. Yeah I get screwed on this deal because a "light" internet (that Ngamer has) costs merely $15 a month and is plenty fast enough for one person; unlimited bandwidth obv.

Why do some countries have metered internet anyway? Is bandwidth a non-renewable resource or something? Seems like it'd be against the US constitutional rights if that happened here...

[Ngamer]

I pay $80USD a month

*spits out all his teeth*

Is that really the best investment for someone who doesn't watch TV, doesn't play games online, and doesn't download high GB movies/games/programs?

[Neo]

Why do some countries have metered internet anyway? Is bandwidth a non-renewable resource or something? Seems like it'd be against the US constitutional rights if that happened here...

It's not non-renewable, but there are limits to how much any network can cope with at one time. Take my local telephone exchange for example - everyone in the area gets their internet through it ("cable" from a television provider is not that common here anymore, most use ADSL which is telephone lines), and if 5,000 people in the area starts downloading something at 20mbps simultaneously everything is going to slow to a crawl because it can only cope with so much at a time. It's basically a (poor) way of trying to ensure everyone gets a semi-decent experience - that's why wireless internet has such strict caps of 500mb/1gb/2gb and the like, because there's very little to go around. As the networks get better more ISPs are feeling comfortable moving to unlimited in certain areas where the hardware is good. As for the US/Canada moving AWAY from it, well, that doesn't really make sense to me - either the network is not as good as they claim and the huge increases in bandwidth (HD content because of Netflix and the like) is causing a strain, or (more likely) they're just finding new ways to get your money.

Also, the suggestion that it would be "unconstitutional" is madness - some American ISPs already have caps in their fine print, but they're typically fairly large (hundreds of gigs or up to a terabyte or soething).

[wheatrich]

that's it you're all moving to america so we can end this nonsense.

[Comet]

I'm in Canada and have no such cap on my internet!

[Axel A]

10/10 fiber, unlimited, paid by uni so $0

[Smit]

50 bucks (converted from Swedish kronor) for 25 Mbps, 1 Mbps upload. Unlimited.

Could probably get fiber here as well but no real need for it.

[octoinky]

I pay $120/month for

HDTV + DVR
Home Phone
Cable Internet

Not sure the specs on internet, but it's plenty fast enough for everything I do....  Streams ahead of youtube, instant loads of pages, etc.  speedtest.net gave me 15.2 mbps download, 4.23 mbps upload.

[Silent Thunder]

I pay $45 a month for 12 Mbps down and something like 1.5 Mbps up.  Speedtest reported 11.03 Mbps down and 1.36 Mbps up.

They're testing the waters for usage limits in the US.  Comcast has had a 250 gig limit in for a while and AT&T added the same limit recently.  Overage charges aren't bad right now, and few people currently hit those caps, but what happens in 5 years?  Average bandwidth usage is constantly going up, so that cap seems huge now, but there will be a time when it isn't.

The apartment I'm in gives me the devil's choice of Comcast and AT&T for internet service, which is the case for a lot of the US.  Both are terrible companies, but AT&T is less terrible than Comcast as far as billing so I went with them.  I'd switch in a heartbeat if actual competition was available.

The Canadian bandwidth limits are beyond retarded.

[DYM]

3392 rupees (so ~ $32.5) for 35 Mbps down + up. Doubles during the night. No mobile package really, only subscribe and use for a day when I need to.



At the time around the thread was made, I had 2 Mbps down and 0.5 up.

[deletedprofile.u]

I think we pay like $100-110 a month for this plus some irrel digital cable/home phone nonsense.

[OHMSS]

@work ... slightly better than Goose's mobile cottage connection

[Joshua Nash]

I pay $90.00 to Comcast a month. I hate Comcast because they keep trying to make me upgrade to cable tv. I even tried to switch to a different provider but in my area I can only pick between Comcast and Verizon. I went to switch to Verizon but the only would offer 1Mbps Down and .5Mbps Up. Verizon said when they get fiber in my area they would let me know but they will charge around $200.00 to $300.00 for it so I have to stay with Comcast. I guess I cant complain though. I get the fastest internet Comcast will offer to a residential property and for $90.00 I get around 180Mbps Down and 12Mbps Up. Also I have unlimited data up and down even with my phone. I didn't know companies still put data caps on users. I remember back in the day when I had to pay to keeping data speeds up after a certain amount but it was still unlimited.

[Joshua Nash]

@work ... slightly better than Goose's mobile cottage connection

Anyone get better internet than this? 
Must be powered by Propane!

[DYM]