United States Broadband speed ranks 12th according to SpeedTest Global Index

Post by TMWNN » Fri, Sep 17, 2021, 8:14 PM UTC

pcurve wrote: post #38

Arubis wrote: post #22

That’s…not terrible? Getting broadband in rural America is rough, and the permissive atmosphere for monopolistic behavior by ISPs is maddening. Pricing for internet access is way worse than in East Asia or western and central Europe. Some folks can’t get real broadband at all, and they’re disproportionally lower down on the socioeconomic spectrum. That’s not fair. These issues are real. But overall, 12th sounds…prett…

It's shockingly good. I'm actually very proud of this statistic. Most won't see material difference between 200mbps vs #1 spot of 250mbps. It's negligible. However. I think there's a rather huge sampling bias, because the data is gathered from people who come to Speedtest.com to run the test.

Post by lucb1e » Sat, Sep 18, 2021, 12:14 AM UTC

foofoo4u wrote: post #90

lucb1e wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Size doesn't matter though, I think the measure you're looking for is population density and perhaps terrain (thinking of Switzerland's mountains here).

Population density and terrain are important factors as well. Including those two other factors on top of size actually supports my argument further. The United States is significantly larger, less dense, and has a wider range of terrain/elemental conditions (ie. mountains, wetlands, deserts, forests, etc.). The fact that the United States ranks this high with these un-optimal conditions is again rather good. And to…

Post by bradknowles » Sat, Sep 18, 2021, 5:42 AM UTC

hunterb123 wrote: post #67

arbitrage wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they should treat it like Texas treats its grid like garbage that falls apart when people actually need to use it? or like a regressive money funnel to line the pockets of an oligarchical captured regulatory body? texas' power grid is not a goal any serious advocate can advance as doing anything right.

If you're referring to the 100 year winter freeze, yes maybe it should have been winterized, and they are now, but that's not what I'm talking about. Maybe all California homes should have A/C for these heat waves. Sometimes it doesn't make sense economically. I'm talking about having a transmission provider and having ISPs compete on the same lines. It keeps prices down (unless you tricked into buying variable whole…

Post by sumtechguy » Mon, Sep 20, 2021, 1:25 PM UTC

Karrot_Kream wrote: post #105

sumtechguy wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the issue is that the problem is being generalized into a 'one size fits all' sort of problem. When the issue is a bunch of items. Rural is an issue. But so is duopolies. So is poor competition. In the year 2000 I could pick from 20-30 different ISPs. Now I can pick from basically 3. Woe unto you if those 3 decide it is going to cost you 20k just to do a hook up or just say 'not available' even though all of…

That's because the government forced Bell/AT&T phone lines to be leasable by other companies. Cable and fiber lines are _not_ required to have that kind of competition, which is why Comcast often delivers the only high-speed connection in a suburban area and can price gouge you.