Technology

I'm in EU and I have 2 different internet connections without a data cap, because I work from home and don't want to commute to the office if one type is down. Both have bandwith caps tho (that way they are cheaper and it's still good enough for me).

However, I want to suggest you use traffic shaping. In Linux, I used "trickle" many years ago, so I could download things without disturbing my family streaming or video calling. Idk how it works in other OSes, but the idea is to send a big download through a special network filter that slows it down to your configured bandwith, delaying it so much that you don't reach your bandwidth cap. (The dowload will take months.) Also, I think I have seen something like this built into Steam and Filezilla. If I remember correctly Steam also had the option to pause downloads manually, but you have to remember to keep an eye on it, if you do that.

Not a chance.

It’s definitely not going to happen in the next 4.5 years. Paying the extra for unlimited data is basically a must these days.

To make myself feel better about it, I try to use as much data as possible every month. Not because there’s actually a good reason for the data caps, but because I’m spending the money, so I might as well. My personal best so far is 7TB in a month 😂

It's just bizzare to me that there's data caps on your internet plans. Especially since you're already paying 5x more than I'm for unlimited connection. I assume there must be some other reasons for this too than just greed. Perhaps the size of your country? I mean even Texas alone is almost as big as entire Europe.

Well, we've just crossed into what will be a third-phase Corporatocracy, and a Monopoly gamed service industry.

You have other options now that are not the usual players, but then you're giving money to Starlink.

You have the option of organizing to create a local fiber concern as a public utility, but in a few months they'll pass laws preventing that from ever happening.

Your best option on the Internet between is an unlimited cell plan and a hotspot, and it's not a great option, but the competition is still so heavy that your bill won't change. Higher latency, but probably decent throughput.

Crappy (30-40mbit/sec) but uncapped FTTC here, plus 5G FVA at 300mbit/sec but 1Tb monthly cap here.

Combining both and separating heavy traffic (fucking fortnite and many steam big games) on the crappy uncapoed, and arr'ing too, leaves tons of data for high speed anything.

Total cost? 22€ + 24€ = 46€/month, no surprises. A lot more expensive than having fiber indeed, but I am deep into the woods, so.

Ah, and when i go over my 1Tb data cap on the FVA, I get throttled to 6mbit/sec, nothing extra to pay.

Yeah, you guys are screwed.

You can't feign growth without suppressing growth first

If you live in a city, then internet speeds are in fact getting faster.

20 years ago I had a 3Mbps line. 10 years ago it was 80. Now I'm getting gigabit speeds and paying less than ever ($60/mo). I know I'm bragging but it feels good to live in an area with competition.

I don't know where you are or what other ISPs are involved, but skimming some discussion online, it looks like these Cox guys -- at least in the several locations I see being discussed, if not everywhere -- have data limits on all of their residential plans, though they have business plans that do not.

https://www.reddit.com/r/CoxCommunications/comments/hf6zwf/cox_resumes_unnecessary_data_caps/

I get 200 down and 20 up for $85. I came from $100 for 3Mbps DSL, so this is winning for me. I use 4 or 5 TB a month without a problem on Cox.

That particular snippit was four years back, so I suppose prices and speeds might have changed.

So might be worth looking into that in your area if that's what you're after.

I'm not concerned with download speeds. 120Mbps is plenty, you haven't got anything to complain about there.

I want square up/down speeds, unlimited data as standard, or at least offered, and wider availability.

So many places are still relying on DSL or sattelite. It's getting so much better with Starlink, but more options are more better.

I can get 1.2Tbps down (I pay for 300Mbps), but I can't do anything better than 40Mbps up (I get 25Mbps up with my plan with NO option to upgrade). It's ridicoulous as a self hoster, my partner and I saturate the connection by each watching a movie that I host at the same time. I'm pretty sure it's just trying to make sure that, if you have a business, you pay for business internet.

In my situation (Xfinity) I can pay an upcharge of 30 bucks per month for unlimited data, which I do.

Tl;dr: we should focus on wider availability, better upload speeds, and unlimited data, in that order, before anything else.

"I get like 120 Mbps max" Literally 5-10x faster than most internet in the UK, no datacaps here though.