I don't determine quality of service available--neither do you.
Providers determine that. They also decide where and what kinds of
services they offer. As long as companies decide that "nobody lives
here" and don't provide service for us, we're stuck with the minimum.
Moving is not an option.
You have to get over the idea of "provider" and get with the idea of
it doesn't profit me to serve you at the same level I would someone who
would actually pay my costs. The machine is not working in your direction,
girlfriend.
The Internet has become a utility. The providers get lots of federal and
state money and tax breaks. They nickel and dime you so that the bill is
often 10-20% above the stated monthly charge, after taxes.
The United States will remain a backward country with respect to
broadband [and mobile service] until the providers are not only given
incentives to provide fast broadband service to everyone, and include
penalties for those who take the incentives as profits instead of
providing the service. Verizon took the federal money and didn't use it
to expand service into unserved areas--so did other companies. It's
getting a little better since that happened in the 90s, but there's a
long way to go.
Ericsson can get 500 Mbps broadband speed over copper in tests; real
world speeds could be 1/6 or 1/8 of that, which is better than fiber or
cable in much of the US. Ericsson is a Swedish telco, where it's much
more difficult to install new lines, and many customers are in remote
locations [ever been to Lappland?]. New VDSL2 standards eliminate almost
all of the interference in copper lines, and has a range of 15,000'. Why
not in the US??? Utilities are necessities and must be treated as such.
Verizon can't complain that they it's not profitable to install fiber in
rural areas. They don't need to do that when copper lines are as fast.
Does AT&T want to remove the copper lines to install fiber, giving it an
excuse to keep prices higher? Sure looks like it. Existing VDSL service
is overpriced by at least 100%.
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