[lp0_on_fire]

Many places in the United States don't have the luxury. I'm in a county of half a million people and there are are basically two options: Comcast cable (which is decently fast for downloads) and a variety of resellers who all run on Verizon's DSL network.

No fiber options unless I want to give Comcast the blood of my firstborn and then pay $300 a month for the privilege. Verizon has been promising fiber "any day now" for the past 10 years.

[the-dude]

My street also only got fiber this year.

What is the actual harm / collusion? You can choose from a wide variety of ISPs, which are decent to your own admission, but the harm is it is not fiber ?

Cry me a river.

[kilobaud]

The past two years should've made it clear that public education and the workforce increasingly depend on having access to bandwidth. Of course this was already a trend, but the pandemic accelerated it, affecting entire household bandwidth consumption at once. I disagree with the implication that wanting (needing?) fiber is somehow equivalent to whining.

[lp0_on_fire]

I can effectively choose between two: Comcast and Verizon/their resellers. I said Comcast _downstream_ speeds are decent. Their _upstream_ speeds are atrocious.

Comcast only provides coax. Verizon and their resellers only support aging copper DSL lines.

No fiber is available unless I pay Comcast literally thousands of dollars just to bring the line to my house. Then they want to charge me $300 a month on top of that.

I did not suggest there was harm or collusion between Comcast and Verizon. I only pointed out that your experience of having a plethora of acceptable ISPs is unusual in most of the United States.

[lostdog]

Most places in the US only have a single ISP option. There's a word that describes this situation that rhymes with "phonopoly."

[tguvot]

wide variety of ISPs that give you "SuperFast 15mbit* ADSL"

*speed not guaranteed.

[the-dude]

How much is that a month? I am getting 50 down, 25 up for IIRC € 30.

[tguvot]

where i live, around $50-$60. and so we will be clear, it's maximum speed :)

[the-dude]

Maximum speed in the EU is much more expensive.

[tguvot]

let me rephrase it. it's the only speed.