[hedora]

At least in the SF Bay Area, rural areas have better internet than the suburbs (not counting places covered with small ISP fiber to the premises).

Example rural ISPs. East bay:

https://www.unwiredltd.com/residential-internet.html

(3 up, $50/mo, 6 up, $89/mo, 9mbps up, $129/mo, no caps)

South bay:

https://www.surfnetusa.com/services/

(Lots of plans: 5 up, $40/mo, or 18mbps up, $103/month, no caps)

I’m paying comcast $80 for 6 up, 1TB cap. It’s nominally 75mbps down, but performance is sometimes too slow for netflix 1080p (3-6 mbps down) during prime time. They won’t sell me a cheaper plan.

[pier25]

Jesus that's horrible.

We live in a somewhat rural area in Mexico (big city is 45 mins away) and we have uncapped 200Mb down / 50Mb up fiber for less than $50 per month.

[obmelvin]

Can I ask you something a bit off-topic? In Spanish (well, specifically in what you've heard in Mexico) do people use the word Jesus like you just did (i.e. Jesus esto es horrible)? Or is there a similar word/phrase that you would say takes that place?

[pier25]

I'm from Spain and there it's only used when someone sneezes.

The word "Jesús" is rarely used nowadays to express a strong emotion like astonishment or disgust. It's something my grandparents would have said. My father is in his 60s and sometimes says it but only jokingly.

It's more common in Mexico but it's also disappearing. When someone sneezes the usual response is "salud".

[hedora]

Note that these are wireless ISP’s. They put a directional antenna on your roof, and aim it at an omnidirectional antenna on a hill. This is similar to starlink, but with lower latency (to the tower/satellite).

I agree that the speeds are awful on an absolute scale, but they’re competing with entrenched monopolies that own legal right of ways that will never be developed. This lets them prevent competitors from running fiber.

Starlink is attacking the same ridiculous regulatory problem. Why build an entire reusable launch infrastructure and custom satellites when laying fiber is dirt cheap? Heck, Facebook says they have a robot that will piggy-back 2km of fiber over existing power lines in a day!

In California, deploying the robots would mean getting PG&E to cooperate, but I could see it helping out in other states.

[dx034]

In some areas, you'd need 10km of fiber to reach 50 households. Considering frequent repairs and maintenance, even with robots that's not cost efficient at what consumers are willing to pay.

[pier25]

I thought you mentioned that some of those numbers where in the suburbs?

[hedora]

Sorry, Comcast is the wired ISP (cable modem) in the suburbs. The others are wireless.

[rayhendricks]

Rural WA outside Seattle 50mi you can get gig fiber for $60/mo http://www.ifiber.tv/internet/mason-county there are allot of other similar municipalities (eastern WA/parts of TN) with similar deals. Just don’t let the telcos become a monopoly and this is what you get.

[corford]

Tbh, none of those numbers look good from where I'm sitting. I pay €45/month for 80Mb down/20Mb up fibre. Granted I'm in a city (in Portugal). My parents in rural France pay €39/month for 20Mb down / 8Mb up. None of us have data caps

[hosh]

US broadband pricing is atrocious ... and people here don't even know it.

[dahfizz]

I get a symmetric gigabit fiber connection for $80 a month (€70). If I didn't need the bandwidth I can get 200/20 for $45/month. I'm on the US east coast.

I think it highly depends on what's available in your area.

[corford]

That's more like it. Actually, I've just checked and my ISP here in Portugal (MEO) is now offering 1Gbit down / 200Mbit up, no caps, 1 month minimum contract length for €45.99 (... seems I need to move package!).