I thought data caps for home internet were a thing of the past…

I’ve somewhat recently moved back to a very rural area of the Midwest. Small town. No stop lights. Biggest businesses other than the bars are Casey’s, Subway, and Dollar General.

And we have one ISP (not counting DSL) — Mediacom. When we first signed up, I had to go with the second service tier. But not because of speeds, but so I could have a reasonable 1 TB/mo data cap.

Lucky me, they increased the cap to 1.5 TB. 🙄

I hope that in my lifetime I can see ISPs regulated as a public utility.

  • SirMaple_@lemmy.worldEnglish
    691·
    11 months ago

    Data caps on home internet services should be illegal. They should also be much higher on mobile, but that’s a whole other topic.

    I have 940/940 Unlimited FTTH for $93.45(Canadian).

    • grue@lemmy.worldEnglish
      6·
      11 months ago

      Data caps on home internet services should be illegal. They should also be much higher on mobile, but that’s a whole other topic.

      I’m not convinced mobile deserves to have caps at all, either!

      As far as I’m concerned, there’s no reason to limit the amount of data transfer except in times of congestion, and I also don’t see any reason the amount of data transferred during un-congested times should have any bearing on who gets throttled.

    • theoc@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      11 months ago

      You’re way overpaying. I pay $40 for 1.5 Gbps with Bell FTTH. Give them a call and say it’s too expensive and see what they can do for you. Or tell them Rogers (if they’re in your area) offered you 1.5gbps for $60 and ask if they can beat that.

      As for mobile, you should look at new plans. $39 gets you 20 GB $50 gets you 40 GB. Seems like plenty of data imo https://www.koodomobile.com/en/rate-plans?INTCMP=KM_HDD_2023_Plans_RatePlans_40gbfor45_ROC_MBSK

      Best time to get a mobile plan is Black Friday, should be even better deals by then.

  • Dettweiler@lemmyonline.comEnglish
    672·
    11 months ago

    Home internet data caps WERE a thing of the past when Obama appointed Tom Wheeler as FCC chairman, who then pushed rulings to classify ISPs as a public utility and started enforcing net neutrality. Companies that didn’t play ball started getting fined until they fell in line. Being a former executive for a major ISP, he was very familiar with the anti-competitive practices and underhanded tricks those companies had been using for years; and he used those practices against them to finally make some pro-consumer progress for internet access in the US.

    Then, Trump came in and put Ajit Pai in charge of the FCC (no joke, my phone kept auto correcting his name to Shit Pie). Anyways, Shit Pie tore down those rulings and undid all those years of progress as part of the Trump administration’s anti-Obama initiative. Even though it was proven time and again that what he did was directly against public opinion, and that ISPs were flooding the public commentary with bot posts(some even made by dead people); Shit Pie continued to meme about himself and drink from an obnoxiously large Reese’s coffee mug while doing so. At this point, every provider of internet services has added back data caps in the US, and they have continued to increase their prices to maintain that 99.9% profit margin. They’ve also locked down more areas to prevent municipal broadband services from forming, and they’re even pushing for legislation to prevent them from ever happening.

    The current administration has done absolutely nothing. In fact, they’ve been so unremarkable, I have no idea who is in charge of the FCC, and I don’t feel like looking it up.

    • khalic@lemmy.worldEnglish
      192·
      11 months ago

      The Biden admin tried to nominate an amazing woman, Gigi Sohn, worked for the EFF. But try to guess who opposed her?

  • Ryan@programming.devEnglish
    40·
    11 months ago

    In Thailand I’m getting 400Mbps upload and download with unlimited data.

    It costs about 300฿/mo ≈ $8.7/mo

      • GillyGumbo@lemmy.worldEnglish
        152·
        11 months ago

        Median income is $23k in Thailand. $31k in US. It definitely doesn’t make up the difference.

        Edit: Used Personal income for US and Household for Thailand. It actually doesn’t bring the gap significantly closer.

      • Ryan@programming.devEnglish
        6·
        11 months ago

        Although I agree that people get paid less here, I highly doubt that it costs an ISP in the US 8x more to transfer data than an ISP in Thailand.

        I’m not really trying to argue that Thai internet is cheap, it’s that internet elsewhere is exorbitantly expensive.

      • duncesplayed@lemmy.oneEnglish
        1·
        11 months ago

        What kind of rube works in the same country they live in? I met a lot of WFH workers when I visited Thailand, and not a single one of them was working for a company in Thailand.

    • lud@lemm.eeEnglish
      41·
      11 months ago

      I have luckily never heard about data caps in Scandinavia except for mobile broadband.

      Do they even exist at all, here?

      • croizat@lemmy.mlEnglish
        1·
        11 months ago

        I had a friend years ago that had a cap, but that was literally the only one I’ve heard of in my life here (Sweden)

    • kristoff@infosec.pubEnglish
      2·
      11 months ago

      Australia looks like an interesting case. Iknow that in some countries, ISPs have to provide service to both urban and rural customers at the same price, which means that urban customers actually subsidize people living in rural areas. In some other cases, the gouvernements help pay for this.

      Isn’t there a project in Australia that the federal gouvernement is subsidizing the role-out of fibre?

      • iturnedintoanewt@lemm.eeEnglish
        2·
        11 months ago

        I have no idea, but that idea didn’t work out all that well in the US. The gov provided funding for expansion to the countryside for all the major telecoms…and they just pocketed without actually implementing anything.

      • scarilog@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        11 months ago

        Idk but pricing in Australia is fucked. The fibre network isn’t that large to begin with afaik, and even if you do have fibre you have to pay an arm and a leg for good speeds.

        E.g. I pay like $70 USD a month for 100/40.

        Symmetric gigabit costs several hundred a month, they’re not intended for residential customers.

    • desconectado@lemm.eeEnglish
      5·
      11 months ago

      The point is to make money, do they charge extra to increase the data cap? If so, it’s all about money.

    • orangeboats@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      11 months ago

      I sorta understand why data caps were implemented in the past. Some people hosted servers on their home connection, and their total internet traffic in a week would far exceed that of a normal user’s. Data caps were meant to force people to be conservative on their internet usage so this would not happen.

      But come on now, it’s 2023. If your internet infrastructure could not handle that amount of traffic, you are a laughing stock of ISPs.

  • z3bra@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
    18·
    11 months ago

    I’m reading all the comments and I’m shocked… In France, with uncapped access and 1Gbps down/600Mbps up (theorical) I pay 40€/mo (30€ every six month when I call to complain that it’s too expensive). And it’s definitely not the cheapest provider.

    That’s insane !

    • lidstah@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
      6·
      11 months ago

      1Gbps down/700Mbps up here, 35€/month (another french provider), no data caps - for 5 bucks/month more I could have 5Gbps down/1Gbps up, but… well, my home network is still using 1Gbps switches - but all the cabling was built with 10Gbps in mind.

      Data caps are pure robbery. We run a non-profit ISP/hosting platform and a non-profit IXP with friends in West France, the only thing you pay (and the only thing end users should have to pay) is goddamn bandwidth.

    • 𝒍𝒆𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒏@lemmy.oneEnglish
      1·
      11 months ago

      (30€ every six month when I call to complain that it’s too expensive)

      Sounds like a Liberty Global owned telecom company… they love their annual price increases ugh, but they are usually the fastest option in most areas

  • Baku@aussie.zoneEnglish
    17·
    11 months ago

    Looking at all you guys with your gigabit connections, meanwhile I’m in Aus and lucky to get 30 down and 15 up

  • voxel@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    14·
    11 months ago

    lol uncapped 500mbps fiber (actual fiber directly to your house) connection is 10-12$/month in Ukraine

  • Xusontha@ls.buckodr.inkEnglish
    13·
    11 months ago

    Where I am, there was only one provider of internet for a long time, and I was paying for a plan that’s more or less what you have right now. Then another company came in and laid fiber, and both companies slashed prices and now I get over double my download speed, no data cap, and something crazy like 50x the old upload speed all for like 20 dollars less a month! Before I switched to the fiber company, the first company even increased my download speeds without increasing the price! Anyone who says competition doesn’t change things is crazy.

  • WereCat@lemmy.worldEnglish
    12·
    11 months ago

    I had uncapped 500/50Mbps for €10 but now I moved to a village and I’m stuck with 100/10Mbps for €20 :(

    • electromage@lemm.eeEnglish
      1·
      11 months ago

      Confused American here, I thought third-world countries all had gigabit for $20/mo!

    • andy_wijaya_med@lemmy.worldEnglish
      15·
      11 months ago

      The fuck that’s so bad. I pay 45€/m for Vodafone, unlimited with 400Mbps. For mobile I also have unlimited plans with about 100€/m (for both me and my wife, with a premium smartphone). Change your provider man.

      • DaTingGoBrrr@lemmy.mlEnglish
        3·
        11 months ago

        Are you high? (S/he’s paying 15 euro less than you each month with slightly worse upload speed than you but also with faster download speed

  • rizoid@midwest.socialEnglish
    11·
    11 months ago

    I was very close to closing on a house in rural midwest but I checked isp’s and every one available had caps so I just stayed away.

    • LogicBomb ⚙️💣@infosec.pubEnglish
      2·
      11 months ago

      Great internet is also a deciding factor for us while looking for our next rural midwest home! I use the FCC Broadband Map and availability searches on local ISP websites to confirm available speeds and no data caps. We passed on some great homes because of slow/no internet or data caps.

      Our current rural midwest home has 940x35 w/o data caps from a cable-based (DOCSIS 3.1) ISP for $34.99/month. I’m sure they will increase the price after 12 months. When the time comes, I’ll call them again to complain and get a decent price again.

    • kassuro@feddit.deEnglish
      1·
      11 months ago

      God, and I pay 45€ for 250 Mbit down and 50 up… Germany is so expensive in this regard. Could get 1Gb down and I think 250 up but that would cost like 90€…

      • quantum_mechanic@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        1·
        11 months ago

        Yeah I remember having really shit speeds when I lived in Berlin (10mpbs). Not only that, but the data allowances and price on 4g were absurd.

        • kassuro@feddit.deEnglish
          1·
          11 months ago

          Yeah it’s crazy, I live in a more rural area around Hamburg but have to commute to Hamburg from time to time. It’s always weird, as soon I enter the city the 4 / 5G just becomes super slow…