What is Broadband? - Comments Page 1

Hi i am from Karachi Pakistan. In my country there are mostly Dial-up connections in residential places that consist the speed of 56kb/sec and some of the cable service provding is more better then dial-up connections..

I have cable access through Charter, and when it works, it works well. Occasional weather-related outages, or having to occasionally reset the cable modem are frustrating, but most of the time, the 3 kilobit/sec download speed is worth the minor annoyances. I've got it bundled with my cable TV, but I REFUSE to give them my phone business, too. That would be like letting Microsoft run the Internet.

I spent years using dial-up. I live is a small village in Mid-Michgan. The phone lines here are really bad. Mr. Bell install the lines about 100 years ago....really.

Now a company has come along and offers wireless. They are using a cell phone tower and I get 1.2megs. That is very close to a T-1 speed. $40 a month. I'm happy! The internet is real fun at this speed.

My friend has recently taken to the roads with his pick-up and a new trailer, traveling the byroad of America. His intention is to hook-up to the internet with a satellite mounted on top of his trailer. He's not a happy camper. There is a specific satellite which he must hook up with. Aiming for it and finding it are not easy and this guy is a real nerd! He's forced to stop at libraries in little out of the way towns to do his communication. I feel sorry for him.

I'm upset enough at our ten-year-old, 26.4 KBPS connection that every time I go online, I actually entertain dark conspiracy-theory thoughts about the class war that seems to be waged against us rural dwellers. It's impossible to be online these days with such a connection-- and, of course, more and more content is directed online! ("Don't call anymore-- go to our website for faster service!") Satellite service is astronomically high-- I don't understand what marketing survey told these providers that the small-town and rural population is so wealthy that we can realistically afford the equipment and contracts. I am livid about this subject. And no, moving is not an option. Thanks for letting me rant, Bob!

Bob, I don't know where you got your information, but it's not even close to the way things are down here in central Texas! DSL will run on up to 6M -- which is what I'm pulling. I rarely find a web site that can feed me data at the rate I'm able to pull it down, but I average over 4M. It costs me about $30/mo. Basic DSL gets you 1.5M for $9/mo. Though that's the speed of a T-1, don't let that fool you. The T-1 is still 'faster'. And a LOT more money.

Then there are several wireless options -- some from the cell phone providers (Sprint, Verizon...), some from local government (Muni Nets), several ways to use wide-area wi-fi, Motorola's Canopy systems... Not to mention satellites. Some of the new wireless players are offering speeds close to 40M for $60/mo. with a one-time setup fee of $200.

EDITOR'S NOTE: As I said, speeds for cable access will vary. I got 6 Mb/s with OptimumOnline, but only half of that with RoadRunner. You're lucky to have such good prices for broadband in your area. But they are far below the norm in most areas.

I have wireless access and its blazingly fast. I've tried broadband in my neighborhood which is mostly older homes and it was a nightmare. After every storm I would have an outage and when you rely on the Internet for your job (I work at home) and it goes out because of a storm, then you need something else. I would like to hear your thoughts on WiFi access.

EDITOR'S NOTE: If you live in an area that offers Wifi, you're very lucky. It's rare to have it outside of urban areas. As for security, see http://www.askbobrankin.com/is_public_wifi_access_safe.html and http://www.askbobrankin.com/wireless_security.html

I started out with dialup, 9 years ago, and went to cable when it was first offered here. AT&T became Comcast and is now Time Warner's RoadRunner. The cost is a freakin' RIP-OFF, nearly $60 per month, and their customer service sucks ... incredible phone wait times. Some neighbors and friends have DSL, and it's much slower than cable. I'm in a Verizon area, but FIOS (fiber optic) isn't offered here, yet. I'm jumping on that as soon as it's available. There are several sites on the internet where you can test your download and upload connection speeds.

If you upgrade to Cable or DSL, tell the service providers that you don't want their icons and gimmics in your browser. Just get the service and keep your browser intact. I would never use their install discs or download from their sites.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For speed tests, go to http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest

According to the Washington Post (WP) article "Who's a Bandwidth Bandit?" [http://tinyurl.com/hthhf] at one time Verizon (Vz) offered an "unlimited high-speed wireless Internet access" for $60 per month. However some of the people who purchased this service discovered it wasn't really unlimited and the discovery happened when Vz abruptly cut them off and charged them a $175 early termination fee.

Seems the "unlimited" service is limited to 5gb/month or 166mb/day. If you go above that, Vz Security can infer that you're using the service for a prohibited activity, like downloading music and movies or watching pornography. And they will use that to terminate your contract and nail you with an early termination fee. According to Vz's Acceptable Use Policy "3. You may NOT use the Service as follows: ... (n) to generate excessive amounts (as determined by Verizon in its sole discretion) of Internet traffic..." [http://tinyurl.com/bqsvs]. At this time you can view this page by going to verizon.com, clicking on the FIOS or the "Last Chance! Get DSL..." hyper links and then clicking on then surfing to a page with the "Verizon Online Policies," hyper link. According to the WP you only find out about the specific limits if you happen to talk to a Vz employee who's sympathetic or backed into a corner.

If there is any local, state or federal agency looking at this I'd love to know about it. In the meantime, "Pirates ye be warned" [http://tinyurl.com/y5u9vs]; but which one's the pot and which one's the kettle?

P.S. And people wonder when I'm going to "wind my watch," and switch from dial-up to broadband.