Net Netrality Redux: COX Service Provider Launches "Elite Gamer" Fastlane Add-on Service

[Penev91]

Strange how other countries can give their users a ZR1 for the price of a Spark then.

Very true. I get 100/100 Mbps for around $5 and 240/200 fiber for around $13.

Whenever a go to the US and hear about internet availability, speed and costs I can't shake the feeling that there's an ISP cartel there and that everyone is getting scammed.

 

[SoNic67]

Yeah, this isn't about upload.

Isn't? How you think that a gaming packet goes from gamer to the server? Small, shared bandwidth, translates also in latency.

Very true. I get 100/100 Mbps for around $5 and 240/200 fiber for around $13.
Whenever a go to the US and hear about internet availability and costs I can't shake the feeling that there's an ISP cartel there and that everyone is getting scammed.

Then you should be happy in Romania too. And find out that even if the "price" of the Internet you think is better, the wages are also so much lower. So all in all, it costs you an equal amount of time in your life to pay for that service. Plus you have to live in crowded cities, in blocks next to blocks, to allow for the economy of that cheap service delivery to work too.
In US an electrical engineer makes around $100k a year. We live in suburbs so far one from another that we have to drive 30-40 minutes to work. Yeah, you have to take the good with the bad - I don't have to hear my neighbor above me playing loud manele at 2AM.

 

[64K]

Very true. I get 100/100 Mbps for around $5 and 240/200 fiber for around $13.

Whenever a go to the US and hear about internet availability, speed and costs I can't shake the feeling that there's an ISP cartel there and that everyone is getting scammed.

I doubt there is a cable cartel here in the USA but imo there exists considerable bribery in the form of large campaign contributions by corporations but leaving politics aside the reason we are told for the extra expense is that cable companies have to provide internet access to fewer people per square mile than most countries. I just did a quick check and found this for comparison:

Population Density per square mile:

USA 87.4
England 1,349
Germany 595

 

[v12dock]

I enjoy having internet through a local fiber ISP.
Cheap, fast, reliable and <5ms ping to Chicago.

 

[Easo]

Then move there.

And find out that even if the "price" of the Internet you think is better, the wages are also so much lower. So all in all, it costs you an equal amount of time in your life to pay for that service.
Plus you have to live in crowded cities, in blocks next to blocks, to allow for the economy of that cheap service delivery to work too.

The prices are so low that even with our wages the internet is stupidly cheap. Or, if you want, South Korea or Singapore as rich countries, yet they have amazing internet too. Look at how much gigabit network costs in SK. Close to the same as it does in Romania.
Please, stop defending shitty practices the USA ISP's has.

 

[SoNic67]

Read a little about population density.


And sure, every one of those "evil" companies should give away free stuff... You start first, go to work and demand not to be paid for what you do. Oh, wait, probably you are not working anyway...

 

[rtwjunkie]

Whenever a go to the US and hear about internet availability, speed and costs I can't shake the feeling that there's an ISP cartel there and that everyone is getting scammed.

There literally is. Each cable company has an exclusive area, they don’t overlap, and some also have slower phone company internet coverage you can opt for.

 

[R-T-B]

Isn't? How you think that a gaming packet goes from gamer to the server?

Through a lot more than the upload link to your ISP. That's just step 1 and probably not even the bottleneck.

"Isn't" was refering to the net neutrality debate, at any rate. No one in that cares about upload it's all about fast lanes.

There literally is. Each cable company has an exclusive area, they don’t overlap, and some also have slower phone company internet coverage you can opt for.

It's pretty damn bad here, truth be told. If you don't believe it look abroad in countries with a similar economic development level for a few minutes. Pretty much only the UK and Australia/New Zealand has it this bad. Those are Islands.

 

[Imsochobo]

it's 1/4th of what I pay for my 100mbit that always has 9-10 ms to most of what I use

 

[Eskimonster]

Greedy ISP, rong way to service people.

 

[johnspack]

We are still getting screwed in Canada... I pay 130can a month for 300 down/ 16 up... what? But thats all we get....

 

[R-T-B]

We are still getting screwed in Canada... I pay 130can a month for 300 down/ 16 up... what? But thats all we get....

Yeah Canada I always forget about. You guys learned from us there and not in a good way.

Of course, it's good to point out the vast majority of Canada and USA is rural terrain, makes it harder to provide service. But not THAT much harder.

 

[jaw shwaa]

I have 150GB a month limit. You could always have it worse.

150GB cap here too , I recently lost my entire steam library (among alot of other things) in a fire here in california, and no other options for internet in the area I'm living in. probly gonna take me another year to get everything back without hitting my cap..

 

[R-T-B]

Then move there.

Or you know, vote. Phone your representitives. Utilize democracy.

Yeah, you can tell people "Don't like it? Leave!" but honestly that is not how most things work. Emmigration isn't easy and many people like their home.

And find out that even if the "price" of the Internet you think is better, the wages are also so much lower.

Not really. If anything they are competitive across most of europe on average. But the taxes are much higher.

 

[WestEnd2019]

I pay for Cox Gigablast service.

For what I pay, you'd expect no data caps. Welp, that ain't true. Still a 1TB data cap. Which is actually quite low in the days of 50GB game downloads, and 4K streaming.

I heard from someone few days ago that there is no cap for Gig...maybe call their support or retention?

You just need a VPN that disguises itself as you looking at ads on Cox's homepage
It is as predicted customers can only vote with their wallets where possible.

not sure I get it what do you mean?

You just need a VPN that disguises itself as you looking at ads on Cox's homepage
It is as predicted customers can only vote with their wallets where possible.

not sure I get it what do you mean?

I have 150GB a month limit. You could always have it worse.

I heard there is no Cap for gig, did you call them?

What an ugly road abolishing Net Neutrality has already taken us down. $15/mo for something that affects 3 games? Nowadays you really should be VPN'ing at least a lot if not all traffic anyway, which wouldn't work with this. I'd also ask why their base service is so bad if this improves it by ~50%.

That's the issue with Net Neutrality being gone, it's very easy for an ISP to make QoS rules slowing down specific traffic (like Fortnite/Overwatch/Apex in this case), then charge more. It's being sold as an improvement over base. But who's to say they don't just crank speeds for those 3 games down by 50% in QoS rules and then sell an add-on service for $15 that removes those limits. And that can and will be done for just about anything from games to Netflix, etc. Hence the need to VPN and keep prying ISP eyes off our data.

1000 or so games - this is the WTFast application white labeled nothing to do with the ISP

 

[yotano211]

I pay for Cox Gigablast service.

For what I pay, you'd expect no data caps. Welp, that ain't true. Still a 1TB data cap. Which is actually quite low in the days of 50GB game downloads, and 4K streaming.

Last month I downloaded more than 1tb using mobile data but my speeds are only 25-30mb/s, not giga speed.

 

[Final_Fighter]

The prices are so low that even with our wages the internet is stupidly cheap. Or, if you want, South Korea or Singapore as rich countries, yet they have amazing internet too. Look at how much gigabit network costs in SK. Close to the same as it does in Romania.
Please, stop defending shitty practices the USA ISP's has.

look at how much blood it cost to keep them from living under tyrants, imagine if the U.S. never got involved? we still spend billions over there and if we did not than i can assure you that they would have to find something to tax. nothing is free and somebody pays the price. im glad that they have good prices and are not miserable, we did a good job.

ya, our internet sucks, but alot of that has to do with the fact that people continue to vote for those who would keep it that way. another part has to do with the fact that the U.S. system of government is designed so that change happens slowly. its to make sure things dont go so far out of line they cant be corrected. in addition, our citys are so far apart from one another in some places and that adds to the cost. then there is a problem with the amount of debt the u.s. is in. if a company charges more for their services and makes more profit so does the tax man. once the debt goes up in flames than the rest of the world will see how cheap their fast service really is. the cost of services in those parts of the ward is distributed fairly well among the working class but if they have no jobs because nobody is buying what they have to offer than that service is going to be either vary limited or non existent.

 

[Chomiq]

What a bunch of COX

 

[Easo]

look at how much blood it cost to keep them from living under tyrants, imagine if the U.S. never got involved? we still spend billions over there and if we did not than i can assure you that they would have to find something to tax. nothing is free and somebody pays the price. im glad that they have good prices and are not miserable, we did a good job.

ya, our internet sucks, but alot of that has to do with the fact that people continue to vote for those who would keep it that way. another part has to do with the fact that the U.S. system of government is designed so that change happens slowly. its to make sure things dont go so far out of line they cant be corrected. in addition, our citys are so far apart from one another in some places and that adds to the cost. then there is a problem with the amount of debt the u.s. is in. if a company charges more for their services and makes more profit so does the tax man. once the debt goes up in flames than the rest of the world will see how cheap their fast service really is. the cost of services in those parts of the ward is distributed fairly well among the working class but if they have no jobs because nobody is buying what they have to offer than that service is going to be either vary limited or non existent.

Blood, tyrants, debt? Eh? What? You went into rant zone, dude.
You often do not even have more than one ISP in whatever location, because any newcomer is blocked due to absurd rules made by lobying, and then the sole provider does whatever they want and people swallow it, because there is no alternative. Again, because no one can come in.
The company I work in has business in USA. Oh, AT&T, go die in a dumpster fire.

 

[SoNic67]

Yeah, you can tell people "Don't like it? Leave!" but honestly that is not how most things work. Emmigration isn't easy and many people like their home.

Yeah, been there. I have tried to "vote" my interests, but in a democracy, stupidity wins. Because they are many. Corruption wins. Because they have more money.
So the result was that, after I spent 5 extra years of my life in a prison called university, I was supposed to work hard and make lots of money. So politicians can take a big chunk of my money to give it away as bribe to fellow voters that were to lazy or too stupid to go further than a high school or aquire some useful skills.
So I moved in a country that I thought it represents the last basion of the free enterprise and freedom. Left everyone that I love, that I knew behind.

Now the free loaders are coming here too. Because politicians know that stupid, welfare-dependent voters are easier to bribe/convince... The free-loaders are electing more and more politicians in their image. Until this country runs out of other people money, like the one they just left. And what locusts do next? Move to the next green pasture.
Until there are no more green pastures left, and locusts will die - of hunger, or fighting for the last scrapes of food. Together with their host.

 

[ypsylon]

Pornhub next?

After all its fun and games over there.

Really feeling for poor folks in US. In so-called 3rd World you are happy if you can check e-mail without problems or government reading every single word. In US it is the other way round. They still read every single word, but You have to pay through the roof to get decent enough service. And I don't even talk major FTTH infrastructure. When I read how much people in US are forced to pay even for ADSL it's mind-boggling. ironic we had debate like that on TechSpot last week. I have no intention of Copy/Paste. Suddenly South Korea or EU are like oasis of cheapest internet connectivity imaginable (excluding of course extreme cases like living on top of Alps or on some tiny little island in the Orkney).

Guys do what you do best over there. Sue the crap of US gov for screwing your lives.

 

[SoNic67]

ou often do not even have more than one ISP in whatever location, because any newcomer is blocked due to absurd rules made by lobying, and then the sole provider does whatever they want and people swallow it, because there is no alternative. Again, because no one can come in.

Nobody tells a company not to come in. It just... do you have the capital? To bring fiber in my house, Verizon had to put concentrators in people yards, every 100 meters, and directional bore between them. Then, from each concentrator, they have to bury fiber to each client's house - another 30 meters. After all that Verizon can have 4 clients, and is in competition with Cox for those clients.
The workers that put that in and maintain the network want to be paid $25-30/hr. Plus benefits. That's great, isn't?
City, state wants taxes for Internet infrastructure. If they sell telephone service or CATV, those are exempted, because the law was made in 1984 and never updated.
So now they force us to buy "bundles" to qualify for exemption. The Internet-only service is made more expensive to allow for the "bundles" discounts. The channels on CATV want money for their programs, so that's another cost. Especially for the stupid sports channels, watched by stupid people.

A public company has to make money, because the people that bought their shares want a return. Those people are mostly 401K pension type of people, that want to retire and have that extra financial nest on top of a measly Social Security (in US you can't live of the Social Security).

Yeah, is not because "they" are greedy. We all are greedy. Greed is good in general, moves people off their asses and makes them do things that they can sell to others (goods/products). If they are also smart and lazy, they might invent things to make the production of those goods/services easier.

...you are happy if you can check e-mail without problems or government reading every single word.

Yeah, you keep thinking that... meanwhile keep using your "free" gmail, facebook, instagram and whatever you use.

 

[Brusfantomet]

I doubt there is a cable cartel here in the USA but imo there exists considerable bribery in the form of large campaign contributions by corporations but leaving politics aside the reason we are told for the extra expense is that cable companies have to provide internet access to fewer people per square mile than most countries. I just did a quick check and found this for comparison:

Population Density per square mile:

USA 87.4
England 1,349
Germany 595

Norway has 36 people per square mile, and no data caps. Every time I hear about the US internet market I am reminded how good we have it over here. From what I remember the UK also has abysmal speeds at exorbitant costs, with data caps.

 

[64K]

Norway has 36 people per square mile, and no data caps. Every time I hear about the US internet market I am reminded how good we have it over here. From what I remember the UK also has abysmal speeds at exorbitant costs, with data caps.

I'm curious though. Is your internet provider being government subsidized?

 

[Brusfantomet]

I'm curious though. Is your internet provider being government subsidized?

in short, No.

But some backstory is fitting.

For a long time there was one telephone operator in Norway (Telagrafverket) , it was state owned, funded in 1855 and was first in the telegraph business and expanded to telephone.

During the 1990’s the telephone market was deregulated, and in 2000 the state owned company, now called Telenor, was privatized, but with the national government still retaining a governing share in the company.

In the late 70’s the national telephone grid was basically obsolete, the hole backbone was therefore rebuilt with fiber infrastructure during the 90’s. This meant that the only copper wires were the last mile to the consumer. When the market was deregulated and there was competition Telenor was still the owner of the mentioned copper wires to every home, but was forced to rent the wires to its competitors at cost prices.

Just recently there was a press release that Telenor no longer will repair the copper wires, as more and more fiber is being rolled out to consumers. Even though the 4G coverage in Norway is reasonable (most population centers and major highways between them have good coverage) there are still some remote locations with bad cell coverage where ADSL or land lines still are the preferred communication solution.