I've had my current ISP (disregarding mergers) for ...
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Missing Option (Score:5, Funny)
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That's the "I don't have an ISP" option.
No, he has an ISP: his neighbour.
Must be nice; Comcast never invites me over for a barbecue.
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Considering that it is the Slashdot, the true missing option is the "I'm the ISP."
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I would have gone with "I just leech Cowboy Neal's wifi" myself.
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Ah! (Score:2)
I also have an unsecured wifi neighbor for the last two years. It was very helpful when I first moved in, it took over 2 weeks for my ISP to connect me. Of course I installed a couple of repeaters to extend their network nicely, but this time secured! We don't want more people mooching off this nice neighbor! It's still my backup network if something goes wrong with mine (or I want to borrow a different IP for nefarious purposes).
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My mother-in-law used her neighbor's open wireless for years without realizing it. When she bought the house it was advertized as "Wireless Ready", and she assumed that meant it came with wireless. One day she tells me that her wireless stopped working. "But you don't have wireless." I said, "You have been mooching off your neighbors." To which she replied, "Oh...."
I have *two* ISP... (Score:3)
Re: I have *two* ISP... (Score:2)
This hit home for me. I cannot get DSL, fiber or cable where I live outside of Austin in the Texas Hill Country. My home ISP is a T-Mobile hotspot. To ensure I don't go over my hotspot limit, it isn't uncommon for me to download CentOS, Ubuntu or Windows 10 ISOs over my unlimited cell phone plan and copy them over USB to my network. My running average on my cell is 25-27 Gigs of data a month. I have TV setup so I plug in cell to HDMI and then stream Amazon.
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My buddy who lives in the hill country (near Dripping Springs) uses a WiSP for his connection and uses T-Mobile's WiFi calling since literally no provider offers service at his ranch. If you want something a bit more convenient than the cell download two-step perhaps look to see if they're available in your part of the hill country =)
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Why not tether a computer to a phone on your unlimited plan and use Internet Connection Sharing or some Linux network gateway distro of your choice?
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Same ISP since 2009 (Score:5, Interesting)
And I love it. 1 Gbps Internet speed, Fiber all the way to my desk, 100+ digital TV channels (which I never watch), free 3G USB dongle which works almost anywhere in the country (except countryside), all for 22 bucks a month.
There are alternatives but they're all suckier so I'll stick with my current ISP for as long as possible.
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You have my attention.
"22 bucks a month"
And now you have my interest. What region are you in and what is the name of the company?
Re:Same ISP since 2009 (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm in Romania and my ISP is RCS-RDS :)
ISP page translated to English here:
https://translate.google.com/t... [google.com]
Re:Same ISP since 2009 (Score:4, Informative)
Average Romanian salary: 423€/mo. I'll pass, thanks.
You're assuming:
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Those assumptions might not be completely true but you can't ignore average wage and other
cost of living factors because there is alot of labor involved in installing fiber lines, maintaining
equipment, etc... If you can hire a ditch digger for 1/10 the cost then it makes sense that you
could offer internet service cheaper as well as the cost of getting the fiber to the home will
be less.
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$150/mo is about what I'm paying for ISP/TV/DVR now.
/ other local providers suck just as hard, though.
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Yes but this is the top Internet offer. You can get 100MBit for 6 bucks a month.
Also I make 1500 bucks a month in Romania but we digress.
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Yes, that's how much I am paying. Actually I was one of the "early birds" so I pay 49 RON which is about 12.40 dollars a month.
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Is this in the US?
If so, let us know who. I may rent a mailbox there and subscribe then just use the free 3G dongle. It's much cheaper than my other 3G option.
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Romania :)
Makes you go hrm. (Score:1)
Why is it that recent polls now seem more targeted towards gathering information about Slashdot users and less about random musings?
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Why is it that recent polls now seem more targeted towards gathering information about Slashdot users and less about random musings?
This older poll [slashdot.org] was also gathering information about Slashdot users. They mostly live more than 20 miles from where they were born.
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Most of us have one monopoly, or the other monopoly, and we switch between them depending on how crappy one currently is versus how crappy we remember the other being. Both are usually crappy, and there is no true escape.
So I voted 3-10 years because that's how long I've lived here and had one monopoly or the other.
should be a long time for most people (Score:3)
Ah - an American speaks (Score:2)
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Have you seen the Kingston upon Hull area of England?
Only one landline operator provides ALL the broadband there; Kingston Communications.
This also isn't a Virgin Media area, and BT don't operate here either so you cannot simply request a BT line to escape the madness.
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We had that, when the major access method was to dial up someone's modem. But when 57.6kbit/s stopped being 'zippy' and we had to move from phone lines to something else to keep up with the size of web pages, we lost that shared access effect. Bummer.
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Unfortunately because of distances involved and having phone companies that like to pocket money rather than reinvesting it, the vast majority of true residential high-speed service uses wire that doesn't belong to phone companies. Cable television, predominantly.
What you describe exists in the US on the telephone system - if you go with DSL, you can choose ISPs and they can deal with the phone company that actually owns the wire and provision a circuit. But the cable companies aren't regulated the same w
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Actually, you generally can't choose DSL providers anymore since the FCC stripped state utility commissions of the power to force naked DSL offerings to CLECs by the ILECS (FCC 05-78).
Re:Ah - an American speaks (Score:4, Informative)
Where I live (south america), it's a monopoly for the state owned telecom.
I pay 26 dollars, and get 30/2, fiber. Phone service is 10 extra.
Most people in urban areas have fiber, also.
Market forces can help you only so much. In other small countries, multinationals own markets, and they set prices at their will.
Telecom is strategic infrastructure, and there's a lot of money, if the state can be trusted to build and maintain roads, why not internet?
There's not a good record of public utilities (Score:2)
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You are talking Economy 101. I took that kind of course.
In practice, it's more complicated.
Telecom is not a free market, it naturally tends to a monopoly, or duopoly, because of the large barriers to entry, and government regulation.
There's no real competition, and no monetary incentive to keep offering good service once you are at the top.
Again, there might be competition in some pockets, like high density urban spots, but it's harder to have competition as density is lower.
To try and simulate competition
The British experience is excellent (Score:2)
Your comparison with ro
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Yes. I have had Charter for a long time, only because I have no other real choice. I have actually considered DSL and wireless as options because I hate Charter so much, but I stay after I really think about how awful DSL and wireless would be. Charter sucks, but not as much as DSL and wireless.
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I'm a Charter customer (relatively new, just under 2 years now). I just have standalone internet though. No phone, no TV. Wondering what specifically you've found that sucks about them.
For me, using them for internet only, they seem fine. I've been quite happy:
- Seems to perform as advertised (60 Mbps down, 4 Mbps up)
- Downtime so far has been in the 'couple of hours per year' range, which is fine for a residential connection.
- I have servers at home and they don't seem to block any incoming ports (or at le
Since last move (Score:5, Insightful)
For US residents this approximately equals to asking "when did you move into your current home" (except for those lucky ones who have both cable AND a decent offering from a phone company, they have *two* options). Where I live now, there is only cable FWIW.
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For US residents this approximately equals to asking "when did you move into your current home" (except for those lucky ones who have both cable AND a decent offering from a phone company, they have *two* options). Where I live now, there is only cable FWIW.
I've had Sonic continuously for 12 years at two residences. In this time period, I have actually lived at three locations and it includes two periods where I did not live anywhere in particular (no fixed address).
So far, the need for service that supports a server in a practial fashion has trumped the desire for speeds faster than 6-7Mbps that DSL can provide. I've never used AT&T, though I did have Comcast for a few months at my residence while my server was hosted at a friend's house.
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I'm looking at switching from Comcast to Sonic; they say they're available at my address with 45Mbit/s for $60/mo which beats Comcast's non-promo prices by a bit. I'm going to have to discuss with my wife whether the internet options for the shows she likes is good enough to drop cable TV, though.
How's Sonic's service been for you? Comcast has been pricey, in my opinion, but I have not had one of the customer horror story experiences yet...
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Re:Since last move (Score:4, Interesting)
I have a grandfathered Clear (now Sprint) plan. $55/mo for unlimited data. Speeds used to be in the 10-12 Mbps range, now they are usually in the 3-5 Mbps range.
The device goes with me if I move ... or if I simply want to bring it with me if I go somewhere.
It is the best performing, best priced, and most convenient ISP I have ever used. That said, it's so great it's no wonder it's now grandfathered and you can't start a new plan. The industry simply cannot afford even a single happy customer.
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I have two cable companies, U-Verse, and a WiSP available at my house, though only the competitive cable provider interests me since I have no desire to deal with any big telco at home since I deal with them way too much at work and the WiSP has some fairly restrictive limits on usage relative to my families usage (~200GB/month and we haven't even cut the cord yet, if we do I expect that to roughly double).
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We've had two options ever since I've moved to the States in 1999. Time Warner Cable or AT&T (previously BellSouth). With BellSouth we only had dial-up available to us. So if we wanted true broadband Internet then TWC was the only game in town. At our present address AT&T does now offer DSL (though they have branded it u-verse, you can't get u-verse TV) but to switch to them now at 3Mbps down vs TWC's (up to) 50Mbps down - it's like degrading to dialup. Almost.
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Anaheim, ca 6 years ago. We had exactly 1 option, cable. Dsl wasn't available despite the apartments across the alley having it. And the wifi provider didn't have a good enough signal.
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The problem is, DSL is becoming less and less a 'real' option. Vast areas which have 'DSL' service are still only ADSL1, which technically maxes out at 8 Mbps downstream but is sold in most markets in tiers up to 6 Mbps (e.g. 768kbps, 1.5 Mbps, 3 Mbps, 6 Mbps). 6 Mbps downstream is pretty limiting these days, to say nothing of the awful upstream bitrates (384kbps? what a joke)
ADSL2+ (up to 24 Mbps down), VDSL, and VDSL2 (which can be as fast as cable if your line length is short) are better but not availabl
An ironic poll (Score:2)
This is a couple of years after dumping my cable for Netflix.
So what I want now is some kind of data service that lets me cut off my ISP. I don't know how that would work but I suspect that 10+ years ago the cable/t
More than 10 years ... (Score:2)
Because local monopolies. Fuck you Comcast!! =)
No Other Choice 1Mbps (Score:1)
I'm stuck until some kind of competition occurs. Sad, unlikely unless FCC really looks at what the economic reality is for a huge part of the US.
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Few choices (Score:2)
I at least have choices, well a choice. I have Frontier 25/5 for $35 a month which is decent, or I could go Comcast (F Comcast). Comcast will never get a penny out of my hands, too much bad history.
Frontier annoys me, hard to get costs without calling. The operator was nice enough, but spew lots of numbers so that it is very hard to figure out a simple speed versus dollars. My service is actually $50/mo, but DISCOUNTS!!! I have no idea what the discounts are, but I had to wait through the guy exuberant
21 years (Score:2)
and three months.
The answers show how behind the times the US is (Score:1)
Comcast, TW etc have US consumers over a barrel and are raping you every which way.
Can you get better speeds elsewhere? Yes
Can you get cheaper deals elswhere? Yes
Can you do both? Yes.
I get FTTC (Fibre to the cabinet up the street then Copper) DSL.
For approx $32/month I get 80Mbits down/16Mbits up
250Gb download/upload (between 08:00-23:59) otherwise unlimited.
Static IP V4 address
rights to run a WebServer (some ISP's prohibit this}
TV can be added for another $15/month.
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250 GB might blow, but generally markets where monthly download/upload allowances are the norm, also offer a RANGE of plans with different download allowances. His limit is probably 250 GB because he chose a 250 GB plan, because that met his needs. He could pay a bit more and upgrade to a higher limit if needed.
I'm guessing here of course, but I've lived in several countries with download allowances of this nature, and in all cases, my download 'limit' was self-imposed by the plan I chose. A typical ISP in
non-consecutive (Score:3)
When I move (geographically) from one monopoly zone to another, I switch providers. This means I've used the same provider for over 10 years, but not consecutively.
18 years (Score:2)
However it is more of a "Better the devil you know than the devil you don't" than any brand loyalty.
Also your choices are between basically between two companies, with pretty similar packages, and similar prices. About the only thing of note I would say is how horrible, stupid, and untrained their phone support is should you ever be in the forsaken situation of having to call in. The only other thing is how many times they call you bugging you to try and sell you more crap, like tv. phones, or whatever...
In
No Choice (Score:1)
Municipal fibre (Score:2)
I'm not sure what to vote for...
My house has had a connection to municipal fibre for over a decade, but the municipality has changed its provider twice in that time.
Previous ISP: a decade (Score:2)
I was with my previous ISP (Speakeasy) for about a decade. They were a wonderful find when my DSL provider went under without warning, forcing me to shop for an alternative from the "comfort" of a coffee place. But as the independent DSL business consolidated (read "collapsed"), they eventually got bought out, customer service predictably declined, and (worst of all) I was still paying the same amount for the same speed I'd signed up for circa 2000 .... I finally jumped ship to (sigh) Comcast.
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What about take overs? (Score:2)
@Home with Adelphia, Adelphia took over when @Home died. Time Warner Cable took over when Adelphia died. That's not a merger?
Been here 6 years (Score:2)
Chinese ISPs (Score:1)
In theory can chose between China Telecom and China Unicom here in Shanghai, in practice the market is carved up. Each company will send you away if you're not living in the area they serve... so much for Chinese "capitalism". At least it's cheap - 2000 RMB / yr for FTTH - and there are no download caps at all... and no regulation on torrenting stuff. (I guess there has to be some upside for all the censorship)
I am an ISP (Score:1)
you insensitive clod!
I have Comcast, you insensitive clod! (Score:2)
I don't have one of those fancy ISPs. I have a "media company" that begrudgingly permits me access to the Internet when I'm not consuming their content.
Since 1996. Almost 20 years. (Score:2)
I was an early adopter of high-speed internet and got it through my cable company in 1996. I ran cat-5 cable through the house and put in a hub to network all our plain-vanilla desktops that I built from components. I then re-purposed an old 486 machine, using two network adapters and Linux to create a firewall so we could all share the same internet connection. All my daughter's middle school friends thought it was cool that she had her own PC with high speed internet. Although all the desktops disappe
Less than a year (Score:2)
Europe here.. I decided to switch last year because i had some issues with my connection - few times a week the modem would just disconnect for anywhere between 5 and 30 minutes while `re-syncing`. The quality of international phonecalls was very bad. And people complained my phone was often not reachable.
So i decided to swap ISP's and get an all-in-one offer. I'm anything but very happy though - Ok - this modem not disconnects. In return sometime the line just goes bad for a few seconds, breaking streaming
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I have XS4All...not cheap, but good service (also NL here). They are not as good as Demon Internet was when they took it over, but still, they're good and I can recommend them.
Twenty-five years... (Score:1)
...this is the length of my imprisonment at Iowa State Penitentiary (ISP), you insensitive clod!
10ish years (Score:1)
Until two months ago when I left them to.... rejoin them, but using under my partners contract.
"Don't complain about lack of options" (Score:1)
From the standard Slashdot poll footer: "Don't complain about lack of options. You've got to pick a few when you do multiple choice. Those are the breaks."
How sadly, quintessentially appropriate that text is in a poll about the ISP cartel system.
Hmm... (Score:1)
None (Score:2)
All bongo drums and smoke signals here. A little laggy in Quake
Forced into a deal with the devil (Score:2)