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.com
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    10 months ago

    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.

  • SirMaple_@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Data caps on home internet services should be illegal. They should also be much higher on mobile, but that’s a whole other topic.

    I have 940/940 Unlimited FTTH for $93.45(Canadian).

    • grue@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Data caps on home internet services should be illegal. They should also be much higher on mobile, but that’s a whole other topic.

      I’m not convinced mobile deserves to have caps at all, either!

      As far as I’m concerned, there’s no reason to limit the amount of data transfer except in times of congestion, and I also don’t see any reason the amount of data transferred during un-congested times should have any bearing on who gets throttled.

    • theoc@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      You’re way overpaying. I pay $40 for 1.5 Gbps with Bell FTTH. Give them a call and say it’s too expensive and see what they can do for you. Or tell them Rogers (if they’re in your area) offered you 1.5gbps for $60 and ask if they can beat that.

      As for mobile, you should look at new plans. $39 gets you 20 GB $50 gets you 40 GB. Seems like plenty of data imo https://www.koodomobile.com/en/rate-plans?INTCMP=KM_HDD_2023_Plans_RatePlans_40gbfor45_ROC_MBSK

      Best time to get a mobile plan is Black Friday, should be even better deals by then.

  • Ryan@programming.dev
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    10 months ago

    In Thailand I’m getting 400Mbps upload and download with unlimited data.

    It costs about 300฿/mo ≈ $8.7/mo

      • Ryan@programming.dev
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        10 months ago

        Although I agree that people get paid less here, I highly doubt that it costs an ISP in the US 8x more to transfer data than an ISP in Thailand.

        I’m not really trying to argue that Thai internet is cheap, it’s that internet elsewhere is exorbitantly expensive.

      • duncesplayed@lemmy.one
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        10 months ago

        What kind of rube works in the same country they live in? I met a lot of WFH workers when I visited Thailand, and not a single one of them was working for a company in Thailand.

      • GillyGumbo@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Median income is $23k in Thailand. $31k in US. It definitely doesn’t make up the difference.

        Edit: Used Personal income for US and Household for Thailand. It actually doesn’t bring the gap significantly closer.

    • lud@lemm.ee
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      10 months ago

      I have luckily never heard about data caps in Scandinavia except for mobile broadband.

      Do they even exist at all, here?

      • Nioxic@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        10 months ago

        My first (fast) internet connection was 1 Mbit.

        We had 1gb to download per month. This cap disappeared when more competitors showed up though (i had that cap around … 2001)

        I havnt seen a data cap for internet connections since. I am not aware of any either. Except for mobile phones. Though, they also have unlimited data for those , if you want. (I have. Just so i never have to worry about it ever again)

      • croizat@lemmy.ml
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        10 months ago

        I had a friend years ago that had a cap, but that was literally the only one I’ve heard of in my life here (Sweden)

    • kristoff@infosec.pub
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      10 months ago

      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?

      • iturnedintoanewt@lemm.ee
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        10 months ago

        I have no idea, but that idea didn’t work out all that well in the US. The gov provided funding for expansion to the countryside for all the major telecoms…and they just pocketed without actually implementing anything.

      • scarilog@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        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.

  • Retro@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Yeah, the ISP cartels sucks. I’ve been stuck paying $170/mo for uncapped 1000/35mbps connection.

    Thankfully, before the end of the year, a local ISP is moving into my area. They offer uncapped symmetrical gigabit, for $75/mo… I’ll be saving $95/mo for BETTER service.

    The longstanding ISP cartels should seriously be punished for the abuse of their market positions and failure to appropriately use government funding they’ve been given.

    • grue@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      1000/35mbps

      That download/upload dichotomy should be illegal in and of itself!

      • Hexarei@programming.dev
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        10 months ago

        Yeah that’s abysmal, but it’s a result of the fact that docsis has always been an asymmetrical standard in which upload speeds are lower than download. I recently moved house and my old ISP was fiber to prem, we had symmetrical gigabit. New house is cable ISP that only offers 1000/50… While docsis 3.0 supports up to 200mbps up. Bunch of greedy bastards.

    • BluePhoenix01@sh.itjust.works
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      10 months ago

      Same boat here… and then the “default cap” is nothing. Between work and family, we hit the data cap of 1.25TB within three weeks.

      Any place I can find more info about the “end of the year” timeframe you mentioned? A new ISP is also rolling in my area, but their site has been vague on time.

      The main street into our house currently has it available, but our actual address not yet… driving me a little crazy.

      Hope the new one is available for you soon.

  • fne8w2ah@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    $40 for 2 Gbps unlimited in Singapore. Caps on home broadband are frankly nonsensical.

  • z3bra@lemmy.sdf.org
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    10 months ago

    I’m reading all the comments and I’m shocked… In France, with uncapped access and 1Gbps down/600Mbps up (theorical) I pay 40€/mo (30€ every six month when I call to complain that it’s too expensive). And it’s definitely not the cheapest provider.

    That’s insane !

    • lidstah@lemmy.sdf.org
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      10 months ago

      1Gbps down/700Mbps up here, 35€/month (another french provider), no data caps - for 5 bucks/month more I could have 5Gbps down/1Gbps up, but… well, my home network is still using 1Gbps switches - but all the cabling was built with 10Gbps in mind.

      Data caps are pure robbery. We run a non-profit ISP/hosting platform and a non-profit IXP with friends in West France, the only thing you pay (and the only thing end users should have to pay) is goddamn bandwidth.

    • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Interesting that they give you more up than down. Are you on a server plan or something like that?

      Edit: lol just noticed what community this is, server plan makes more sense now.

    • 𝒍𝒆𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒏@lemmy.one
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      10 months ago

      (30€ every six month when I call to complain that it’s too expensive)

      Sounds like a Liberty Global owned telecom company… they love their annual price increases ugh, but they are usually the fastest option in most areas

  • zikk_transport2@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    10 months ago

    I just don’t understand the point of data caps. Internet is not something you order, like 10TBs for a village and the next order will arrive the next month. Or worse - internet supply issues, where Cisco is not able to manufacture TBs in time… Like what the fuck is data cap.

    You don’t have TBs in internet infrastructure. You have throughput which means how much data per second you can send through your infrastructure.

    Anyway, everyone flexing their ISPs, so do I:

    • Vilnius, capital city of Lithuania
    • “Telia” ISP.
    • They offer speeds from 250mbps min to 2gbps max.
    • Not sure about the other plans, but 1GBPS that I have is 940mbps down and 580mbps up and costs 19.90eur per month. Most importantly - no data caps, no slowdowns (at least in the past 3 years) and public IP that does not change.
  • voxel@sopuli.xyz
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    10 months ago

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

  • rizoid@midwest.social
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    10 months ago

    I was very close to closing on a house in rural midwest but I checked isp’s and every one available had caps so I just stayed away.

    • LogicBomb ⚙️💣@infosec.pub
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      10 months ago

      Great internet is also a deciding factor for us while looking for our next rural midwest home! I use the FCC Broadband Map and availability searches on local ISP websites to confirm available speeds and no data caps. We passed on some great homes because of slow/no internet or data caps.

      Our current rural midwest home has 940x35 w/o data caps from a cable-based (DOCSIS 3.1) ISP for $34.99/month. I’m sure they will increase the price after 12 months. When the time comes, I’ll call them again to complain and get a decent price again.

    • Jikal@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Good choice. I live in the rural midwest and the only thing that’ll reach (even though we’re in the flatlands) is a WISP we pay $170 a month for 12/6. No data caps, but it’s slow as shit. At least it’s not satellite so we can still play games online fairly reliably but damn.

  • Baku@aussie.zone
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    10 months ago

    Looking at all you guys with your gigabit connections, meanwhile I’m in Aus and lucky to get 30 down and 15 up

    • zikk_transport2@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      10 months ago

      I’ve used to temporarily live with 100mbps internet (~95mbps up/down). What really helped me:

      • CAKE queue (QoS stuff) - every device gets fair share of internet.
      • Since I was lucky to have static speeds - bufferbloat was also eliminated.
      • QoS - my seedbox had only a spare internet. Which means if everyone/me uses internet at max, then seedbox would have literaly 0 bits per second throughput, and would get it once there is spare throughput available.
      • Local DNS-based adblocker. I prefer blocky, but others prefer Pi-Hole. Blocky has a feature to pre-cache commonly used domains, so additional internet performance. :)
        • zikk_transport2@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          10 months ago

          Yes, this one.

          Pihole has a cache also though, does this do something different?

          The cache you are referring to is basically:

          1. Device asks to solve google.com
          2. Pihole asks upstream for IP.
          3. Pihole returns IP to device
          4. Another device asks to solve google.com
          5. Pihole returns IP from cache to another device.

          Blocky has the same functionality, but it also detects which domains are frequently requested, therefore puts them into “always keep up to date in cache”.

          Basically let’s say that many devices keep requesting for “google.com”, blocky detects it as frequently reqiested domain, and as soon as it expires, instead of removing from cache, blocky simply refreshes it’s value and keeps in cache. Expires again? Refresh and keep in cache again. And does this idefinitely.

          Let’s say “google.com” TTL time is 10 minutes. Once 10 minutes passes - blocky should remove it from cache, but because precatching is enabled - it will refresh it instead of removal.

          Check documentation for details. ✌️

      • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Local DNS-based adblocker. I prefer blocky, but others prefer Pi-Hole. Blocky has a feature to pre-cache commonly used domains, so additional internet performance. :)

        Blocky is written in Go, which I understand is an interpreted language program, versus a compiled language program. Please correct me on this if I’m wrong.

        If I’m right, then what kind of performance issues if any do you see using Blocky? I asked this assuming that an interpreted program will run slower than a compiled one.

        • zikk_transport2@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          10 months ago

          Blocky is written in Go, which I understand is an interpreted language program, versus a compiled language program. Please correct me on this if I’m wrong.

          Yup, you are completelly wrong.

          If I’m right, then what kind of performance issues if any do you see using Blocky? I asked this assuming that an interpreted program will run slower than a compiled one.

          N/A

          Go is awesome. My favorite programming language. <3

    • hschen@sopuli.xyz
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      10 months ago

      Wish i had 15 up, im getting 40 down 3 up. They started putting fiber down my street but not active yet, cant wait to go to 1 gig

  • Xusontha@ls.buckodr.ink
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    10 months ago

    Where I am, there was only one provider of internet for a long time, and I was paying for a plan that’s more or less what you have right now. Then another company came in and laid fiber, and both companies slashed prices and now I get over double my download speed, no data cap, and something crazy like 50x the old upload speed all for like 20 dollars less a month! Before I switched to the fiber company, the first company even increased my download speeds without increasing the price! Anyone who says competition doesn’t change things is crazy.

  • CatTrickery@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    I live in the UK and currently have copper cable at about 60mbps for £60 per month. I thought what I had was bad because I have a friend who gets 1gbps for £30 a few miles away.

    • art101@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Where the hell in the UK are you? I’m in the North and pay £26 for 60mbps but get more like 70 due to how close I am to the street cabinet though I haven’t even got copper cable here, just crappy aluminium that is so old I think Alexander Graham Bell himself fitted them.

      • CatTrickery@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        I’m in the north-west but I’m limited to BT because nobody else has cables down yet. A different company claims to be fitting FttP round here in a few months though.

        • art101@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Similar issue here, full fibre roll out is estimated to be complete in 2025.

          I’m just outside Newcastle on the coast and could get Virgin but my neighbours have had a nightmare with it.

          They only rolled out their fibre about three months ago so there might be issues with that

        • fox2263@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          So it’s my impression that (and my knowledge might be out of date here) but almost anywhere that BT is then there should be at least 1 other company that operates on their lines (or rather Openreaches line, after they were split out of BT for competition purposes) so you should be able to get someone else with luck.

          Try using Sam knows website and they tell lots about your line and what you can get.