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Folanlron

Folanlron

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Rajaah said:
Been trying to get Verizon FIOS for ages. Always get a "not available in your area" message when I apply at a new place, even though all my places were in a major city until 2022.

Tried RCN too, same shit, not available. Literally the only thing available is Comcast. How is that even legal? You'd think there'd be some monopoly law for this cause there's no way Verizon FIOS wouldn't want to operate in the major city in question while Comcast monopolizes it.

Funny thing is if you go outside the city limits all of a sudden RCN is available.

At my 2022 place I ended up just carrying Comcast over because I didn't want to be arsed with it anymore.
Click to expand...


It's not a monopoly though ...

It's a fucking Duonoply(Which honestly is even fucking worse)
 
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Daidraco

Daidraco

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There just isnt a super obvious way for people to demand a change to shit like this. At least none that Ive seen. Ive read the articles where these companies get huge grants from tax payers in my area, and others and for the prices to be where they are is just obnoxious. Shentel in Shenandoah area has "Glo Fiber" that my city has paid an ungodly amount of money to have installed in the area - if you follow their service area for Glo Fiber, it looks as though they are actively avoiding the areas where they have cable customers and actively pursuing Xfinity Comcast's area. Just my luck, Im in their Cable internet area. I pay $85 for 300 mb/s and Glofiber's 1 gig package is $80 for my zip code (if I was able to get it).

Same damn gripes with how much people pay for Cell Phone service and how much lobbying they have to keep dominant control / price fixing on that. Some provider from the EU (or CN?) tried to come into the states with a much cheaper service. Companies like Verizon charged them exorbitant prices to use towers that were already paid for by tax payers and towers that were theirs, completely denied them use of. At least this is how I interpreted it all from what I read.

Fuck the whole system tbh.
 
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Folanlron

Folanlron

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Try being someone who has tried too start there own ISP...

was gonna start out as a WISP, while I was getting the logistics around for pure fibre connections.

AT&T put a stop too that really quick, and honestly there was nothing I could do about it, cause of there contract with the county.
 
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Daidraco

Daidraco

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Folanlron said:
Try being someone who has tried too start there own ISP...

was gonna start out as a WISP, while I was getting the logistics around for pure fibre connections.

AT&T put a stop too that really quick, and honestly there was nothing I could do about it, cause of there contract with the county.
Click to expand...
I looked into a WISP years ago and in the grand scheme of cost of startup, I didnt think it was all that expensive. A small town / county area I used to live in had one and even though I lived probably 10 minutes out of the town, it worked surprisingly well. Low-ish ping, etc. But just as you proved, they no longer exist and Shentel dominates that area now. I find it hard to believe that they folded due to lack of customers.
 
Folanlron

Folanlron

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Ya, the hardware is pretty cheap, the cost comes when you need to go register as a low-power broadcast station(Which I think is what the big telecom companies watch for too shut-down any start ups.)
 
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Kharzette

Kharzette

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There's one game in my very small town here too. Per mbit it is probably one of the most expensive connections in the world, about 100 bucks for 25mbit (was 10mbit for years). Bill just went up to 190 though I'm hoping that was a mistake.

A slight power blink knocks it out till "business hours" quite often as well, so it's not like it is reliable for that kind of money.

All isps do the dead-fiber-in-alleys payment scam. For several years when I moved back here all I could get was 1.5mbit dsl.
 
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Rajaah

Rajaah

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Kharzette said:
There's one game in my very small town here too. Per mbit it is probably one of the most expensive connections in the world, about 100 bucks for 25mbit (was 10mbit for years). Bill just went up to 190 though I'm hoping that was a mistake.

A slight power blink knocks it out till "business hours" quite often as well, so it's not like it is reliable for that kind of money.

All isps do the dead-fiber-in-alleys payment scam. For several years when I moved back here all I could get was 1.5mbit dsl.
Click to expand...

Make sure you get to the bottom of that sudden bill increase. I've had Comcast make that "mistake" with me once or twice.

My mom was paying like $170 a month for "ultra fast" internet for years that was supposed to be 100 MB a second downloads. One day I came over and tried to download something big and it was slow. Like 1 MB a second at best. Tried uploading something... like 0.3 MB a second.

Asked what her speeds were, found out it was 100 DL and 30 UL or something. Called Comcast like "why are you charging my mom $170 and throttling her speeds" and they apologized for the "malfunction" and fixed it by flipping a switch on their end. WTF.

I wonder how many old people they're fleecing. Like, old person gets high speed net, they notice old person rarely actually uses more than an MB, so they throttle it down to save money while still charging them full price.
 
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popsicledeath

popsicledeath

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Rajaah said:
I wonder how many old people they're fleecing.
Click to expand...

Be me trying to explain to my girlfriend's grampa the super HD ultra gold plated HDMI cable he got from Best Buy for $40 isn't actually needed even for his new 4k "speed" tv the guy at Costco said would be way faster than his old tv with his $275 a month cable TV plan.

As far as my research shows, all old people are being fleeced. And normally that injects money into the system for innovation, but it's other old people in charge of the laws and levers of government and business.

So, really, maybe they're the ones secretly doing the fleecing in some sort of flim flam operation.
 
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Malakriss

Malakriss

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Beyond just paying for Internet + Cable TV + Premium channels there is the Fee portion of the bill they so neatly itemize

verizon_fees.jpg
 
Ukerric

Ukerric

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Rajaah said:
My mom was paying like $170 a month for "ultra fast" internet for years that was supposed to be 100 MB a second downloads.
Click to expand...
As a regular reminder. In "commie Europe land", where you have the choice between a minimum of 4 major ISP in ANY location, and half a dozen of local providers... You get €49.95 (52.5$) per month, ALL taxes included, for fiber, 1Gb down/100Mb up. The cheap version is €34.95 (although it might have raised recently). For triple-play - 1Gb internet, 50 basic TV channels and a phone number.

That's what happens when you're in a country that's capitalist... sorry, socialist.

(note: I pay 64.95€, but that's because I also have a mobile 5G with a 250Mb download cap and unlimited text/national calls linked to my main offer)
 
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