The crappiness of national ISPs is a feature, not a bug. ISPs have lobbied at state and federal levels to get their way. In many states, they have lobbied _for_ the ban of municipal ISPs.
Then between major ISPs they have under the table agreements to avoid competing in certain areas. This impacts all types of residential areas - suburban, urban, and rural. I believe it’s much worse in rural areas.
Why bother with providing good customer service or improving? They know you have no other choice.
Cellular networks functioning as ISPs have provided _some_ relief in this aspect but comes with its own drawbacks (congestion can get bad and you get throttled, and latency tends to be shitty all around).
The ideal municipal ISP I have seen is in Chattanooga TN. They (EPB) offer _residential_ customers symmetrical access starting at 1000 Mbps, up to 25,000Mbps. [1]
The 1gig plan is cheaper than GFi er and 2.5G plan is competitive.
Plus this money is kept within the ecosystem of this area. Creates high paying jobs. Profits reinvested into network rather than stock buybacks or some C-level executive that “super commutes” in a private jet.
I remember, they took the money for delivering fast internet then lobbied to change the definition of “fast internet” to specs they already provided. So the government investment became profit instead.
Then between major ISPs they have under the table agreements to avoid competing in certain areas. This impacts all types of residential areas - suburban, urban, and rural. I believe it’s much worse in rural areas.
Why bother with providing good customer service or improving? They know you have no other choice.
Cellular networks functioning as ISPs have provided _some_ relief in this aspect but comes with its own drawbacks (congestion can get bad and you get throttled, and latency tends to be shitty all around).
The ideal municipal ISP I have seen is in Chattanooga TN. They (EPB) offer _residential_ customers symmetrical access starting at 1000 Mbps, up to 25,000Mbps. [1]
The 1gig plan is cheaper than GFi er and 2.5G plan is competitive.
Plus this money is kept within the ecosystem of this area. Creates high paying jobs. Profits reinvested into network rather than stock buybacks or some C-level executive that “super commutes” in a private jet.
[1] https://epb.com/fi-speed-internet/?#choose-your-plan