China has overtaken the US in broadband growth!

[DarthSlyGuy]

China Overtakes U.S. In Number Of Broadband Lines -- Broadband -- InformationWeek
This is a testament to how our ISP's have been screwing us all over by misspending the money given to them by the government to build out their networks. Instead of rolling out new fiber optic and improving their existing networks they just throttle us and cap us. This is the 21st century! We shouldn't still have people on dial-up in major cities and broadband prices as high as 60USD for 2MBPS service. Is it time for the FCC to rip the telecom's a new one and get the ball rolling again?

Also, a bit of a side note but have you noticed the leaps and bounds China is making with their space program? It's only a matter of time before they surpass us in that arena too. They are even planning on rolling out their own alternative to our GPS system. They already have their own weather, public communication, and spy satellites.

[KenshinHimura]

China: 1+ Billion people
USA: ~300 Million people

Who needs more lines for the same service?

Either way, I would like to see our ISPs actually try to innovate - they still run commercials saying they are faster than DSL when DSL has been obsolete for a long ass time.

[Mookster]

I'm confident that I could run faster than the DSL you guys have in the States.

The corporate world baffles me. Capitalism is outliving it's use; it's got a death grip on our technological evolution.
There are a handful of major ISP's in the States that are in competition and they all foster tens of thousands of employees, therefor it's vital to bank billions of dollars in pure profit and rape the consumers for more because you need to be on par with the competition, so advancements become lower priority because, in this case, it's more profitable to have sluggish service because you get away with doing it when bandwidth is in demand. The cash might aswell not exist.

[DarthSlyGuy]

It all breaks down to the fact that the internet isn't seen as a utility in this country so its vastly unregulated. States have the power to ordain monopolies (and believe me they use it) for Cable and DSL providers. Most people in the US don't have a choice for their provider its usually either Cable, DSL, or ****ty wireless. Because of this obvious lack of competition there has been little to no push to grow and innovation in the industry (the only major exception being Verizon and their push for fiber optic to the home). Personally I think its about time the ISPs start getting regulated more like they are in some countries.

[han_han]

Problem is, how do we get this concern out to the people that will actually do something? I'm sure a lot of people in America hate this fact, but thinking practically, how do we get ourselves out of this situation?

In other words, I'm asking how do we alter the incentives for competitive market to take it's natural course and be efficient?

[Degausser]

Originally Posted by KenshinHimura

DSL has been obsolete for a long ass time.

[NickF]

Originally Posted by DarthSlyGuy

[
Also, a bit of a side note but have you noticed the leaps and bounds China is making with their space program? It's only a matter of time before they surpass us in that arena too. They are even planning on rolling out their own alternative to our GPS system. They already have their own weather, public communication, and spy satellites.

And have walked in space

[CrazyGerbilEater]

Originally Posted by han_han

Problem is, how do we get this concern out to the people that will actually do something? I'm sure a lot of people in America hate this fact, but thinking practically, how do we get ourselves out of this situation?

In other words, I'm asking how do we alter the incentives for competitive market to take it's natural course and be efficient?

get thousands, more than thousands to refuse to pay for internet services that arent faster.

get more companies in, and get EVERYONE to jump on the fastest, and when the fastest changes switch.

thats how it should be happening, and thats how companies would focus on improvement. Like the intel amd thing, when amd comes out with crappy cpus, you buy an intel, and vice versa. its the ****ers who stay with the company that sucks that screw the rest of us over. because then they think, well we have this userbase, so we dont really have to try that hard.

always serve your own interest, and everything flows smoothly. the basis of capitalism.

[XGhozt]

This has been a long time coming..

[unimailer1972]

Originally Posted by DarthSlyGuy

This is the 21st century! We shouldn't still have people on dial-up in major cities and broadband prices as high as 60USD for 2MBPS service. Is it time for the FCC to rip the telecom's a new one and get the ball rolling again?

So, am I the only one here with Fios?

I have been extremely pleased with my speed and reliability. It is exactly what I had been looking for.

[Pete_Zahut]

Originally Posted by unimailer1972

So, am I the only one here with Fios?

I have been extremely pleased with my speed and reliability. It is exactly what I had been looking for.

I dont have FiOS but I have used it, and its pretty wicked fast, kinda like Speedy Gonzalez on speed/meth/caffeine

[Eppie]

FiOS (the basic one) is the same as regular Comcast cable.

[unimailer1972]

Originally Posted by Eppie.gov

FiOS (the basic one) is the same as regular Comcast cable.

So, does that mean that the first few articles that popped up when I googled "fios vs comcast cable" are flawed? I'm not too gullible to be proven wrong by research or facts that my search did not produce. Did you find any research to dispute these articles?

Manageability - Verizon FiOS Evaluated Versus Comcast Cable Internet

Originally Posted by http://www.sharkyforums.com/showthread.php?t=273644

I'm on a waiting list for FIOS 15/5 service that costs about the same as 3/.7 cable or 3/1 DSL.

From basic to the advanced Comcast, it just doesn't seem to be close.

Originally Posted by http://www.gearlive.com/news/article/q308-verizon-fios-vs-comcast-feature-by-feature/

I find that one to be amusing, seriously. Sure, the pricing on that bundle is competitive with the FiOS bundle of the same speed, but Comcast also was careful to point out their max speed of 16/2. Now, when I left Comcast Internet for FiOS Internet, Comcasts maximum speed was 8/0.768, so they have definitely improved a bit. However, my initial FiOS speed was 30/15. Today, I am on 50/20. There is just no comparison between FiOS at 50/20 and Comcast at 16/2. Comcast simply can’t touch FiOS.

[Eppie]

Basic FiOS is 5/2, look it up on Verizon's website.
Basic Comcast is 6/2. I can post a speedtest if you can't find that figure.

EDIT: My information is outdated. Basic FiOS is 10/2, it used to be 5/2. So, it's slightly better than Comcast.