Sorry. Believe me, I know how good I've got it, and I was reminded again this past week while on holidays at my father's cabin. It is in a valley, so below the line of sight required for mobile phone access. It was like a return to the early 90s, when one had to go to the University for Internet access and didn't have it at home. How did we live?
Thankfully, the iPad was loaded up with Kindle books beforehand, so the week wasn't a total disaster.
Everyone in Canada hates him too - this sort of connection isn't the norm. For example, see Rogers and Sympatico pricing. They have a monopoly on the Toronto area, mostly.
I get a rock solid 16 mbps here on the Toronto area for 39.95 and it doesn't matter how many HD channels I'm watching. This is Cogeco using coax and they preassigned a bank for television a bank for voip and a bank for the internet. The crowding is generally a problem of telcos that are sticking with twisted pair (i.e. ADSL)
Guess I'm lucky. I have Verizon fios where I live (Long Beach CA). I get 25 Mb up and down. (I only pay for 25/15 but I get 25/25, not complaining). I pay $100 a month for that and HD TV. Not super cheap, but cheaper than Comcast which I previously had been using.
I get 20 Mbps in the US- from Cablevision in CT. It costs 29.95 a month. For $20 more a month I could get it upgraded to 30 Mbps. Btw, my upstream is 2 Mbps.
Thankfully, the iPad was loaded up with Kindle books beforehand, so the week wasn't a total disaster.