The Price of connection

[HorseArcher]

I'm trying to figure out , whether or not the price of internet connection is getting cheaper, more expensive or remained constant.

I also want to know if it became any faster or no significant changes compared to a few years ago.

I'm simply complaining, that the high-speed Internet isn't getting cheaper, neither faster on a national level in USA to my observations.

Anyone agree disagree?

Could you guys please post

-Type of connection (name and whether it's cable/satellite/
-what you pay for the internet
-what speed you get (kbytes/second)
-and your location?

(measure your speed here)

Here is me:

DSL by SBC Yahoo

- $35.00 + fees ~
- 240 kb/second
-Connecticut

[Doono]

Our bill isn't going to be too handy because we have phoned retentions and they lowered our monthly bill for 3 months and forgot to change it back lol.

Virgin Media
£22 per month
Cable
2Mb (240kbps)

Price includes cable television (full channel pack except films and sports) and all phone calls lol.

[spartan_phalanx]

Broadband
$45
Montana

[Ummagumma]

talktalk
Free
Broadband

(Fairly slow today, last test was 7500 odd...)

[shadowarmy75]

Earthlink Cable (Goes through Time Warner's network)
29.99 for 6 months, 40 afterwards

Western Mass,USA

[Burnum]

[Skyler]

Casema broadband

€29,00
184 kb/second
Capelle aan den Ijssel, Rotterdam, regio Rijnmond, Zuid Holland, the netherlands, Europe, planet Earth.

[imb39]

Virgin Media.

£20/month, or there abouts.



My impression is that internet connection costs about the same now as it did when I first start BUT relative to my wages etc, it has gone down dramatically. Of course, the service has improved out of all recognition.

[sapi]

Just to clarify, all of those cable subscribers who're saying their connection is 240,184,etc kbs really mean KB/s, don't they? There's an eightfold difference, and I can't see cable being that slow

As for my connection, welcome to Australia 1500/256 kbs (dl/ul) is still above average, and that's atrocious It's $55 for 10GB, too, even with the best ISP in the country - the ex-national telco still owns the copper networks, and still charges outrageous 'rental' prices for other ISPs to use them

[imb39]

I can feel your pain, remember - paracetamol!

As to the units - I don't know...

[King Edward III]

Virgin Media.

2.95 megabits per second
360.37 kilobytes per second
5.672 seconds
4:53 PM Fri Jan 04, 2008

£30 odd. It was part of a package with the phone and TV.

[HorseArcher]

Looks like the TV cable companies monopolizing on the broadband internet, not only in USA but everywhere else.

Well, everyone has a cable who has cable TV, same with the landline phone.

This is quite disturbing, for example - You can pretty much only can have cable internet if you are a TV suscriber or a phone suscriber.

Here is an interesting observation on something else:

-Hungary is lacking cable TV in rural areas (outside the capital) and most people have already canceled or never opted for landline phone, due to the popularity of the cell phones.
So, for example, my brother has internet connection through radio signals, like imagine a giant wireless internet connection. the broadcaster (or amplifier) is usually a large town's tall building, which sends down the signal to a high point of another town and that further broadcasts the signal to individual homes. Basically the same way it works as an AM radio or TV by antenna.
This sort of a setup only works on a relatively flat environment, so the mountains do not shadow off the signal. I kinda like this idea, but it needs innovation to boost signal and speed. (It's speed varies, but in average it's like a DSL connection)

So here is the deal.
Broadband internet has been pretty much taken over by cable TV companies and landline telephone companies, which are becoming monopolies and charge as much as they want, simply coming from the fact, that they own the cables running to your house.

This monopoly will not be broken until satellite internet becomes more popular and cheaper and no cables will be needed. Satellite TV providers might try to monopolize on this, but since satellites are usually "rented" by corporations (One sattelite has many responders /little antennas/) so it's only a matter of time until the technology will allow us to have more competitors to bring down the price of broadband internet (which is stuck at a high price), by either investing in satellite net, or simply putting up more satellites on orbit.
I feel, this is the future, unless other companies (beside TV and phone) start laying down some cables.

[Ummagumma]

Broadband internet has been pretty much taken over by cable TV companies and landline telephone companies, which are becoming monopolies and charge as much as they want, simply coming from the fact, that they own the cables running to your house.

I used to pay £10 per month in addition to my land line rental for a 2 Meg connection. I was then sent a letter telling me that there would no longer be an additional charge for the Broadband, as it was getting absorbed into the land line rental charge.
When I then found out that the Broadband had changed to 'up to' 8 Meg, and that the land line rental was 25% cheaper I was understandably surprised. If this is the product of monopolies, then bring them on!!

[danzig]

Verizon FIOS at home
15 Mbps up/down
65 bucks per month (though goes up to 72 middle of the year)

[spartan_phalanx]

I have paid $45 for nearly 8 years (excluding the 6 month $30 promo back in 2000). I am completely satisfied with my Internet and the company offering it. In fact the only issue I have ever had was a faulty cable modem, once I complained they brought out a new one and gave me some premium channels free of charge for 12 months.

I had DSL for a very short period as well and they (Quest) did require a landline phone, but I dropped them quick. Aside from that I have never owned a landline phone (Cell Phone or Skype are all i need).

[sapi]

Looks like the TV cable companies monopolizing on the broadband internet, not only in USA but everywhere else.

Well, everyone has a cable who has cable TV, same with the landline phone.

This is quite disturbing, for example - You can pretty much only can have cable internet if you are a TV suscriber or a phone suscriber.

Here is an interesting observation on something else:

-Hungary is lacking cable TV in rural areas (outside the capital) and most people have already canceled or never opted for landline phone, due to the popularity of the cell phones.
So, for example, my brother has internet connection through radio signals, like imagine a giant wireless internet connection. the broadcaster (or amplifier) is usually a large town's tall building, which sends down the signal to a high point of another town and that further broadcasts the signal to individual homes. Basically the same way it works as an AM radio or TV by antenna.
This sort of a setup only works on a relatively flat environment, so the mountains do not shadow off the signal. I kinda like this idea, but it needs innovation to boost signal and speed. (It's speed varies, but in average it's like a DSL connection)

So here is the deal.
Broadband internet has been pretty much taken over by cable TV companies and landline telephone companies, which are becoming monopolies and charge as much as they want, simply coming from the fact, that they own the cables running to your house.

This monopoly will not be broken until satellite internet becomes more popular and cheaper and no cables will be needed. Satellite TV providers might try to monopolize on this, but since satellites are usually "rented" by corporations (One sattelite has many responders /little antennas/) so it's only a matter of time until the technology will allow us to have more competitors to bring down the price of broadband internet (which is stuck at a high price), by either investing in satellite net, or simply putting up more satellites on orbit.
I feel, this is the future, unless other companies (beside TV and phone) start laying down some cables.

Interestingly enough, ADSL2+ (the newer spec only rolled out here by independent ISPs, because the ex-national telco likes its cable and wireless plans ) is actually faster than cable (18mb/s, shared) at 24mb/s theoretical speed