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New York starts enforcing $15 broadband law that ISPs tried to kill

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Re: New York starts enforcing $15 broadband law that ISPs tried to kill

#91
post #11

200Mbps is barely enough for TV streaming if you are on Comcast (Xfinity). You need 500. I have tried 300 and had issues once in a while, 500 works fine. That is because with Comcast, you will never get 200Mbps, no matter what the plan, at least were I live.

I thought it was 25 for HD streaming, but Netflix they only need 5mbps! I'd still shoot for higher, but we are plenty happy with 100.

https://help.netflix.com/en/node/306

Re: New York starts enforcing $15 broadband law that ISPs tried to kill

#93
post #5

> The New York law requiring Internet providers to offer cheap plans to people with low incomes will take effect on Wednesday this week following a multi-year court battle in which the state defeated broadband industry lobby groups. I don't like these types of mandates because it distorts the market. Politicians get to say "we provided X people with internet service and we didn't use a dollar of tax payers' money". W…

Vouchers don't work since the ISPs will just raise the price to take into account the increased purchasing power.

Just adding the burden to the ISPs of offering service at a fixed price will let ISPs compete for who can do it the most efficiently and raise the prices for other customers the least.

But in general I agree with the concept of "just give people enough money so they can afford a base standard cost of living", but in the US specifically that seems very anathema to the culture, they're always trying to control how poor people spend their money (see "food stamps" something I've never seen anywhere else) so unless you do the same thing across the board, just giving one single targeted handout will not have the desired effect.

Re: New York starts enforcing $15 broadband law that ISPs tried to kill

#94
post #5

> The New York law requiring Internet providers to offer cheap plans to people with low incomes will take effect on Wednesday this week following a multi-year court battle in which the state defeated broadband industry lobby groups. I don't like these types of mandates because it distorts the market. Politicians get to say "we provided X people with internet service and we didn't use a dollar of tax payers' money". W…

but the Internet is free once the infrastructures base costs have been paid.

This is pretty delusional.

Somebody has to run the network. Employees need salaries. Things break and wear out. Customers need service. Billing isn’t free.

Re: New York starts enforcing $15 broadband law that ISPs tried to kill

#95
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This does not increase the cost to ISPs. It does marginally decrease their profits. A profit is not a cost, and despite what finance bros think lower profits are also not a cost. It is perfectly possible to supply 1000Mbps symmetrical fiber service to end users for $20/mo because numerous self-sufficient non-profit municipal broadband organizations in the United States are doing just that. This is 2.5% the capacity f…

What does that have to do with what I wrote? If you want to transfer some ISP profits to low income New Yorkers, do that directly

While sometimes direct monetization of the benefits is a better solution, in this particular case it is not. First of all government in this case doesn't want to give some cash to to the poor, it wants to provide them with access to information. So instead of giving people cash, then verifying if they are spending it on the internet, they are streamlining process for it. And second, direct monetization of benefits won't work in this case. Essentially government is taking some cost out of ISP pocket and redirecting it to the poor ISP customers. But if they monetized same process, the government wouldn't know who to give that money. They would need to additionally track if a poor person is a subscriber or no, and where is he currently located at all times, to know which ISP's money should be redirected to whom. It is way more work for almost no benefit.

Re: New York starts enforcing $15 broadband law that ISPs tried to kill

#96
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This does not increase the cost to ISPs. It does marginally decrease their profits. A profit is not a cost, and despite what finance bros think lower profits are also not a cost. It is perfectly possible to supply 1000Mbps symmetrical fiber service to end users for $20/mo because numerous self-sufficient non-profit municipal broadband organizations in the United States are doing just that. This is 2.5% the capacity f…

> It is perfectly possible to supply 1000Mbps symmetrical fiber service to end users for $20/mo because numerous self-sufficient non-profit municipal broadband organizations in the United States are doing just that. This statement is false.

I have almost (800 Mbps) that for 30 euros per month, but I'm not from the US. Pretty sure the first year it was 20€/month too.

Re: New York starts enforcing $15 broadband law that ISPs tried to kill

#97
post #5

> The New York law requiring Internet providers to offer cheap plans to people with low incomes will take effect on Wednesday this week following a multi-year court battle in which the state defeated broadband industry lobby groups. I don't like these types of mandates because it distorts the market. Politicians get to say "we provided X people with internet service and we didn't use a dollar of tax payers' money". W…

This does not increase the cost to ISPs. It does marginally decrease their profits. A profit is not a cost, and despite what finance bros think lower profits are also not a cost. It is perfectly possible to supply 1000Mbps symmetrical fiber service to end users for $20/mo because numerous self-sufficient non-profit municipal broadband organizations in the United States are doing just that. This is 2.5% the capacity f…

Can you tell the ISPs in my neck of the woods (Brussels, supposed capital of Europe) to get off their ass and offer 1G symmetic fiber for any price.

Re: New York starts enforcing $15 broadband law that ISPs tried to kill

#98

> New York Public Service Commission Chair Rory Christian last week issued an order stating that the law will take effect on January 15. > $15 broadband plans with download speeds of at least 25Mbps, or $20-per-month service with 200Mbps speeds. This looks like it will be applied statewide. Not sure if remote parts of the state can handle such heavy connections.

the $15 plan is about what I expected. the $20 plan is kinda absurd. I'm in CA, but I'm paying 100/month for a 400 Mbps plan.

[deleted]

Re: New York starts enforcing $15 broadband law that ISPs tried to kill

#99

> New York Public Service Commission Chair Rory Christian last week issued an order stating that the law will take effect on January 15. > $15 broadband plans with download speeds of at least 25Mbps, or $20-per-month service with 200Mbps speeds. This looks like it will be applied statewide. Not sure if remote parts of the state can handle such heavy connections.

the $15 plan is about what I expected. the $20 plan is kinda absurd. I'm in CA, but I'm paying 100/month for a 400 Mbps plan.

I'm paying $30/mo for 10 Gbps in Japan, paying $100/mo for 400 Mbps sounds crazy.

I get that the last mile infrastructure costs a lot to lay down especially in the U.S. with your crazy local politics, but once that pipe is there the bandwidth to fill it should be cheap.

Re: New York starts enforcing $15 broadband law that ISPs tried to kill

#100
post #11

200Mbps is barely enough for TV streaming if you are on Comcast (Xfinity). You need 500. I have tried 300 and had issues once in a while, 500 works fine. That is because with Comcast, you will never get 200Mbps, no matter what the plan, at least were I live.

I thought it was 25 for HD streaming, but Netflix they only need 5mbps! I'd still shoot for higher, but we are plenty happy with 100. https://help.netflix.com/en/node/306

^says
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