I’m an unfortunate captive of the oligopoly of the internet industry in the USA. In many places, you have 2-3 choices of internet, and all of them suck ass. I’m in this situation. All internet providers in my area have a 1-1.5 terabyte data cap. So when I download Call of Duty for 250 gb and it fails and has to update or reinstall, I’ve wasted 500 gb, and have now reached 50% of my data cap in just 1 day. There are crazy fees, for example, Cox Cable says:

If you go over, we’ll automatically add 50 gigabytes of data for $10 to your next bill. That’s enough for about 15 hours of streaming HD video. If you use that 50 gigabytes, we automatically add another 50 gigabytes for $10 and so on until you reach our $100 limit of data overage charges or until your next usage cycle begins.

So your $90 a month internet can easily become $190 a month, which is fuckin criminal, like that is so scummy and asinine how that can even be legal. But it is perfectly legal. The FCC is also looking into these data caps but now that we have a new anti-federal government president elect… This is probably toast… Nothing will change now that most federal agencies are about to be deleted.

From a technology standpoint too, nothing is really getting better

Comcast is still using Coax instead of Fiber Optic and desperately trying to convince people that somehow, someway coax can be just as good. Do with that info what you will, I have no opinions on it. There was a Federal program started recently to expand rural internet access, which will probably be gutted in 2025 leaving many without suitable internet again. Fiber Optic is fast, but still, not new technology, and doesn’t solve a critical issue… It doesn’t matter if you have 2 Gigabit internet if no one in the world is uploading even half that fast. A single download on Steam is like 450 Mbps, Epic Games launcher is horrifically slow. I get like 120 Mbps max when downloading Fortnite updates even with 1500 Mbps internet hard wired to my router with top tier hardware

It’s just sad to think about the future of internet in the USA, and knowing we’ll be imprisoned by these data caps for the foreseeable future.

    • rumba@lemmy.zipEnglish
      1·
      10 days ago

      Well, the idea would be for one of them to get a business class connection, then they all split the price.

      People have done this. That was a story I read maybe 6 months ago about a guy that couldn’t get FiOS at his location. They kept jerking him around on getting the business class connection then the fiber contractors kept drinking around it’s kind of hard to pull this off in a way where the companies don’t jack you around.

          • kyle@lemm.eeEnglish
            1·
            10 days ago

            Probably like $120/month. You can certainly get lower, if you want like 15Mbps.

            The infrastructure cost is prohibitively expensive though. Current ISPs have rigged it so the barrier for entry is massive. And making something actually widespread will force you to get permits from local government, which the ISPs lobby.

            • qyron@sopuli.xyzEnglish
              1·
              10 days ago

              No, no.

              I literaly mean you pull a cable between yours and your neighbors house. Then the next house and so on and so forth.

              Like building a record breaking lan party.