Note This article is written by me and spell checked with AI. Many of the images are generated by AI. They are mostly to explain certain points and break up the wall of text.
Well FUCK YOU!
Use your word processor to spell check, and buy stock photos taken by humans, which have probably been ripped off to train that AI.
Your disclaimer doesn’t legitimize anything.
Yep I saw that it had AI slop and immediately closed the window.
Frankly idgaf what an AI user has to say.
Lmao. I have 25 Mbps. Let alone 25 Gbps. Thanks Malcolm turnballs
I have fttp and it goes airtight but I pay for the best I can get and still only get 850mbs on a good day.
But 3 years ago I only got 18Mbps so my jump on speed is amazing
What does airtight mean in this context? I’ve only heard that term in a much different way…
Ah my bad, meant to be “Alright”
Probably slang.
In Breaking Bad one Tuco said “Tight, tight” while snorting the meth.
So I’ll assume this is the next higher level of “tight”.Oh airtight is the next higher level of tight all right lol
Also curious because I understand airtight to mean something vastly different
They will never give you more unless something forces them to. That could have been us, forcing them to, but we’re shit at accomplishing those kinds of things.
Cries in German
So?
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaah, warum??? Warummmm???”
Kohl
I suppose there’s a long German word that describes that feeling.
Yeah but the Swiss say it wrong.
Neuland
1Gbit for 40€ per month here in Germany, the US is much worse afaik.
For me 1 Gbit fiber is 70 €, only copper is cheaper with 45 €
I’m paying for fiber, copper here would be more expensive for less speed lol.
They put it in a few years ago in the whole neighnorhood.
Here in Sweden I have over 20 choices of providers, many with specific a focus. One that is superb, which is the one I have, don’t do any tracking or information gathering at all. They are fully focused on privacy, an open Internet and have helped countries in need, like Ukraine, with hardware to keep Internet access on. They’ve been raided and taken to court over not following the required IP address storage laws and some other things of deliberately not collecting information. Their newsletter is so good too, all about privacy and relevant tech news. Seriously couldn’t dream of a better ISP.
ISP name?
the ISP name is [redacted to maintain anonymity]
I’m sure this will be lost in the comments but you CAN get 25GBit here in 'murica. My ISP offers it… But this ISP is also considered one of the best in the world so… https://epb.com/fi-speed-internet/#choose-your-plan
Lol $1500 a month. JFC.
Right? I’d rather get 3x10gbit and bond them together.
Just for reference Init7 offers 25 Gbit/s for 65 CHF a month. Thats about 83 USD.
They have the same monthly price for 1 Gbit/s 10 Gbit/s and 25 Gbit/s. Only the initial install for the higher speed optics costs 77 CHF or 222 CHF more respectively.
I’m still on their 1Gbit/s service because I’m too lazy and cheap to replace my router and LAN with 10 Gbit/s equipment.
Most hardware does 2.5Gbps out of the box these days.
I’ve had 1Gbps for 13 years now (in Denmark) and can comfortably say: it’s plenty
True most motherboards, even the normal ones, now come with 2.5G included. But upgrading to 2.5 G feels like a wasted middle step if the next tier of external connectivity is at 10G, so I’ve not done that either haha
Those are insane prices. I live in Brazil and I have gigabit internet for 32-ish dollars.
It costs me $120 for internet after discount for 2 gig Xfinity, and the upload isn’t symmetric. America is a ripoff.
Are those converted to USD?
How much do you make in salary after taxes?Because as far as I read everywhere about US and salaries, it’s not that unusual for regular skilled jobs to achieve 6-figure yearly salaries.
it’s not that unusual for regular skilled jobs to achieve 6-figure yearly salaries.
This is a… very messy and complicated area to talk about and there are plenty of stats and data setsyou can cherry pick to make things sound better than they are. Consider things like median vs average, whether or not you excluded retired folks, etc.
This graphic is a decent toe in the water:
That’s daylight robbery, how is that one of the best in the world ?
Dang I pay $900 for 5gbit
$30/mo for 10 Gbit here in Japan. They just started offering 25 Gbit in parts of Tokyo this month for $200/mo
I really am hoping to leave the US in the next year or so, unfortunately Japan wasn’t on my list but…maybe for that…
Your casually picking a country to move to based on internet speed is nuts lol.
Why do you want a 25 gbps speed if you’re not running a data centre?
Nice. Used to live in chat. Miss epb internet.
If the internet had been around back when the U.S. Constitution was written, instead of post offices, the framers would have put in ISPs.
Fuck comcast. Fuck 2tb bandwidth limit unless you get their fuckass router. Fuck them.
Not that it absolves them of their bullshit, but you can set their router to bridge mode and use your own. It still removes the bandwidth limit.
It is a PITA to set up bridging though, thanks to their fuckery with the software. Fuck comcast
Google tried to break regional US monopolies with Google Fiber, which to my surprise is still going despite Google’s best efforts to kill off projects that aren’t immediately successful and is active in 19 US states or around 40 different cities.
The only way I can see this catastrophe ending is one of three ways:
- Satellite internet - Elon Musk would need to massively drop the price of Starlink to encourage others to switch, or a competitor would need to pop up and offer similar service at a lower price point, likely through Blue Origin or Virgin Galactic.
- The US collectively vote the Republicans out of office by a landslide and bring in a left-wing Democrat leader. Won’t happen for so many reasons.
- Mesh networks. Something like Freifunk but on a much bigger scale.
Not only is Google Fiber still going, it actually has begun expanding service again after being stuck in limbo for a while.
It’s a strange one, to be sure, but I guess they see a benefit to the infrastructure they built.
Google Fiber unfortunately got sold to a private equity company and merged with Astound.
Google Fiber is massively expanding in my state. They blew through my neighborhood in about a week getting the lines installed at the street. Then a month or so later were setting up the per house installs. I’ve only had it a few months now.
I got this email on March 26th though. Once their expansion slows and the number of new subscribers starts to taper off I expect the full enshitification process to begin.
Interesting. So ultimately Google is divesting itself of the responsibility and cost of the network.
Given that the pricing is already pretty high compared to what it used to be, I won’t be surprised if it begins to creep up again in due time.
At 1Gbps, I think ours is one of the fastest in this part of Germany…
Thanks, this reminded me that I should check the competition for now. It’s not as well designed infra as in Switzerland, but I should check for an open fibre that has several service providers.
my goodness - I saw this pretty pretty long back.
You know I wanted to defend America and be like no way of course there is 25 gbit…
But there isn’t. None. Not even in business offerings.
Very good. My TL;DR take:
The American and German approach of letting incumbents build monopolies, allowing wasteful overbuild, and refusing to regulate natural monopolies is often called a ‘free market.’
But it’s not free. And it’s not a market.
True capitalism requires competition. But infrastructure is a natural monopoly. If you treat it like a regular consumer product, you don’t get competition. You get waste, or you get a monopoly.
The Swiss model understands this. They built the infrastructure once, as a shared, neutral asset, and then let the market compete on the services that run over it.
That’s not anti-capitalist. It’s actually better capitalism. It directs competition to where it adds value, not to where it destroys it.
The free market doesn’t mean letting powerful incumbents do whatever they want. It means creating the conditions where genuine competition can thrive.
It’s so stupid in Germany. It was state-owned. Then, privatization and Telekom expanded into other nations. In Germany, it violates net-neutrality, and sends repeated lying, misleading, and pressuring door-to-door marketing. For a premium cost, you don’t get a premium service. Worse, it’s still so big that it affects infrastructure over the whole of Germany. Insane.
But some wealthy pockets with strong political connections got filled along the way during privatization and that’s all they cared about.
so capitalism good when done right - couldn’t agree more
You don’t even need capitalism for a free market. It can be worker owned cooperatives competing.
Some right libertarians actually believe the bullshit that free markets magically pop up out of the ground like weeds if you just don’t regulate anything. This is obviously untrue. You need the right type of regulation to have a free market. Otherwise you end up with cartels and monopolies.
Those that operate the cartels and monopolies know this, but continue to feed the propaganda machine that spouts the opposite.
Exactly. Free Market is a term that’s poorly understood by both the left and the right.
Libertarian police
I was shooting heroin and reading “The Fountainhead” in the front seat of my privately owned police cruiser when a call came in. I put a quarter in the radio to activate it. It was the chief.
“Bad news, detective. We got a situation.”
“What? Is the mayor trying to ban trans fats again?”
“Worse. Somebody just stole four hundred and forty-seven million dollars’ worth of bitcoins.”
The heroin needle practically fell out of my arm. “What kind of monster would do something like that? Bitcoins are the ultimate currency: virtual, anonymous, stateless. They represent true economic freedom, not subject to arbitrary manipulation by any government. Do we have any leads?”
“Not yet. But mark my words: we’re going to figure out who did this and we’re going to take them down … provided someone pays us a fair market rate to do so.”
“Easy, chief,” I said. “Any rate the market offers is, by definition, fair.”
He laughed. “That’s why you’re the best I got, Lisowski. Now you get out there and find those bitcoins.”
“Don’t worry,” I said. “I’m on it.”
I put a quarter in the siren. Ten minutes later, I was on the scene. It was a normal office building, strangled on all sides by public sidewalks. I hopped over them and went inside.
“Home Depot™ Presents the Police!®” I said, flashing my badge and my gun and a small picture of Ron Paul. “Nobody move unless you want to!” They didn’t.
“Now, which one of you punks is going to pay me to investigate this crime?” No one spoke up.
“Come on,” I said. “Don’t you all understand that the protection of private property is the foundation of all personal liberty?”
It didn’t seem like they did.
“Seriously, guys. Without a strong economic motivator, I’m just going to stand here and not solve this case. Cash is fine, but I prefer being paid in gold bullion or autographed Penn Jillette posters.”
Nothing. These people were stonewalling me. It almost seemed like they didn’t care that a fortune in computer money invented to buy drugs was missing.
I figured I could wait them out. I lit several cigarettes indoors. A pregnant lady coughed, and I told her that secondhand smoke is a myth. Just then, a man in glasses made a break for it.
“Subway™ Eat Fresh and Freeze, Scumbag!®” I yelled.
Too late. He was already out the front door. I went after him.
“Stop right there!” I yelled as I ran. He was faster than me because I always try to avoid stepping on public sidewalks. Our country needs a private-sidewalk voucher system, but, thanks to the incestuous interplay between our corrupt federal government and the public-sidewalk lobby, it will never happen.
I was losing him. “Listen, I’ll pay you to stop!” I yelled. “What would you consider an appropriate price point for stopping? I’ll offer you a thirteenth of an ounce of gold and a gently worn ‘Bob Barr ‘08’ extra-large long-sleeved men’s T-shirt!”
He turned. In his hand was a revolver that the Constitution said he had every right to own. He fired at me and missed. I pulled my own gun, put a quarter in it, and fired back. The bullet lodged in a U.S.P.S. mailbox less than a foot from his head. I shot the mailbox again, on purpose.
“All right, all right!” the man yelled, throwing down his weapon. “I give up, cop! I confess: I took the bitcoins.”
“Why’d you do it?” I asked, as I slapped a pair of Oikos™ Greek Yogurt Presents Handcuffs® on the guy.
“Because I was afraid.”
“Afraid?”
“Afraid of an economic future free from the pernicious meddling of central bankers,” he said. “I’m a central banker.”
I wanted to coldcock the guy. Years ago, a central banker killed my partner. Instead, I shook my head.
“Let this be a message to all your central-banker friends out on the street,” I said. “No matter how many bitcoins you steal, you’ll never take away the dream of an open society based on the principles of personal and economic freedom.”
He nodded, because he knew I was right. Then he swiped his credit card to pay me.
The American dream!
Fantastic BTW.
deleted by creator
Not that I am one, but I believe true libertarians should be rabidly pro anti-trust legislation, letting corporations fail, and a 100% inheritance tax above a threshold.
True libertarians are. Companies shouldn’t get tax payer bailouts.
What a terrific summary. Thank you
The author misses a few key points about the American model:
First, in exchange for the local territorial monopoly, the providers are supposed to be heavily regulated by the local (or State) government, with controls in place to prevent abuse of the monopoly and promote the interests of its residents. Of course, we all know how business interests influence government to make business- friendly regulations. Governments have the ability to enforce more user-friendly practices, if they choose to do so.
But the more important point is that in the US, we hand out different monopolies based on the connection type. For instance, where I live we have one company that owns the twisted-pair POTS landlines, a different company that owns the coaxial cable TV service, and another company that owns the direct fiber to the home. Three companies, three connections to each home, all three (theoretically) capable of delivering the same services, since there is no longer any real differentiation between voice, video, and data service: it’s all just bits.
We just got our FTTH provider only recently. Before that, our choices were only the cable company or the telco’s astonishingly show DSL. So I subscribed to the Cable company, and their pricing model tried to force you into a bundle for the other services. Their speeds were also quite slow for broadband, until the Fiber company started digging. Then I got all sorts of emails saying “we’re increasing your speed – for free!” And sure enough, I was getting better bandwidth. But all that did was piss me off. These losers could have given me that better service all along, but didn’t bother until they were forced to.
So I’m on the fiber now. But I know how it works, this service will be awesome at first, but once this company finishes building out they won’t sign on any new capacity and it will gradually get shittier over time. It’s the American Way!
(And I still pay the local telco way too much money for a POTS landline. What can I say, I’m an old.)
Thanks. I just woke up, and now I’m several different kinds of angry instead of just one kind of angry.
Why bother with coffee?
Would it help if you knew we paid providers billions of dollars in the 90s for fiber and they ran off with the profits, and we got nothing? So it took almost 2 decades after we paid them, to finally get gigabit speeds, on top of paying them again to do it for reals this time.
They didn’t respond due to aneurysm
Especially no, mostly because I actually finally got fiber when I lived in New York City, but, due to a family emergency, I recently had to move to Florida, where… Well… Florida…
Have you considered porting your landline to a VoIP provider?
Yes, I have. But when I noted I was old, I should have added I am also lazy.
😂 Haha, well I can’t help you there on account of my own!
Benefit of pots is it doesn’t go out when the Internet does (unless your provider has a VOIP backend, but usually those would be more robust than your home.)
It also is a second source of electricity coming into the house should there be a power outage.
I kind of wish I could have an old school pots line, even though I run my own VOIP system.
All those benefits mattered a lot more before everyone had a phone in their pocket. A power outage that takes out cell towers is also likely to take out the Telco central office.
