What’s Wrong with US Broadband?

[samarthr1]

Here in urban India, I get 33 mbps symmetric for leser than 5 USD a month[1], and a 33 tb data cap.

[1] https://www.jio.com/selfcare/plans/fiber/jiofiber-prepaid-mo...

[johnthuss]

"In short, this is what’s wrong with broadband in America. It’s expensive. Most people can’t choose their carrier. They add bogus charges."

To this list I would add that lack of choice of speeds, whether you want a faster speed or want to pay less for a slower speed. There is simply a lack of choice.

[tomwheeler]

What's wrong with US broadband, in my case, is that it simply doesn't exist. Some people lament having a choice of one carrier, but I have a choice of zero carriers who provide broadband service (as currently defined by the FCC).

I live in a county of approximately one million people and the neighborhood adjacent to mine, including a house less than 200 feet away, has cable internet with 300 Mbps service. I've been paying Universal Service Fund fees for years (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Service_Fund) but I had a faster DSL connection 20 years ago.

[uni_rule]

Somehow they have too much regulation to allow competition to build out but also not enough regulation to not be absolute shitheads to their territorially captive customers. The cable cartel specifically has never overbuilt due to the fact that outside of mergers and other unnatural growth they made towns sign exclusivity agreements back when all these systems were was a means of accessing porn and HBO, but once they got broadband faster than DSL they were able to pummel the previous telephone providers into the ground before doing regulatory capture enough to prevent any upstart from possibly building fiber lines or whatever without besting them in hand to hand combat.

[legitster]

So, I've talked to lots of people who have moved out of the country (Germany, Eastern Europe, SE Asia, S America), and nearly all of them have complained about the local internet options (some areas may be significantly cheaper, but quality is a concern).

So I can't tell if this is actually a uniquely American problem or just us Americans thinking our problems are the center of the world.

[uni_rule]

It's likely different problems in the same field (eg complaining about reliability vs arbitrary caps). The quality isn't as much the problem in the US specifically as the red tape around these companies creating local fiefdoms of captive customers is. They treat their customers like ass because they know they can.

[masterof0]

I would love some choice, in my building I can only get xFinity, or a very slow ATT DSL connection. That's what is wrong.

[zeruch]

Everything.

[programmer_dude]

It seems unrestricted capitalism and the free market eventually leads to a complete take over by monopolies. Case in point: USA.

[uni_rule]

The US after successfully chaining and regulating a "natural monopoly" in telecom in a way that granted them some of the highest quality home service in the world: what if we broke it up into a hundred pieces and made it more free marketer?