Does your ISP screw you over?

[DaHero]

I get stuck a lot during my late night WoW runs with a crappy connection courtesy of AT&T. We pay for 6Mbps and at around 10PM that drops down to 1 or 2 Mbps if I'm lucky. Of course, calling the tech support just lands me with someone on the other side of the world (no offense to people outside the US, just hard to understand some people over the phone) that searches through a database for answers...at best.

This happen to anyone else? The only problem is that AT&T has a practical monopoly because no other ISP wants to support our area.

On another note: the ad supported Captcha just reminds me of why I don't have a smartphone OR Xbox LIVE.

 

[Waaghpowa]

I live in Canada, and it's even worse. The government basically gave the 2 ISP's, Bell and Rogers, a monopoly. The average data allowance cap is 40 gigs and an unlimited option doesn't exist. They were also planning on switching to a "Pay per use" model, so they can charge us based on how much we use rather than give us a monthly cap.

Edit: Also the fastest connection that Bell offers is 25 MBps but it's not available in a lot of areas, and it's 60 bucks a month with a cap.

 

[SkinyJim]

I get stuck a lot during my late night WoW runs with a crappy connection courtesy of AT&T. We pay for 6Mbps and at around 10PM that drops down to 1 or 2 Mbps if I'm lucky. Of course, calling the tech support just lands me with someone on the other side of the country (no offense to people outside the US, just hard to understand some people over the phone) that searches through a database for answers...at best.

This happen to anyone else? The only problem is that AT&T has a practical monopoly because no other ISP wants to support our area.

On another note: the ad supported Captcha just reminds me of why I don't have a smartphone OR Xbox LIVE.

Do you mean the other side of the world? I have nothing against them but I really have trouble understanding people with indian or asain accents. Man some of them get annoyed after I ask them "sorry, what was that?" 5 times in a row :S

It's typical of an internet connection to get slow at common times (after 5pm during weekdays, the entire weekend, etc.) due to congestion but I imagine it should go a little faster after 10pm. Weird.

 

[DaHero]

I get stuck a lot during my late night WoW runs with a crappy connection courtesy of AT&T. We pay for 6Mbps and at around 10PM that drops down to 1 or 2 Mbps if I'm lucky. Of course, calling the tech support just lands me with someone on the other side of the country (no offense to people outside the US, just hard to understand some people over the phone) that searches through a database for answers...at best.

This happen to anyone else? The only problem is that AT&T has a practical monopoly because no other ISP wants to support our area.

On another note: the ad supported Captcha just reminds me of why I don't have a smartphone OR Xbox LIVE.

Do you mean the other side of the world? I have nothing against them but I really have trouble understanding people with indian or asain accents. Man some of them get annoyed after I ask them "sorry, what was that?" 5 times in a row :S

It's typical of an internet connection to get slow at common times (after 5pm during weekdays, the entire weekend, etc.) due to congestion but I imagine it should go a little faster after 10pm. Weird.

Typo fixed, but yeah it doesn't help that I could get someone in Cali because it's not late there ya know?

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

Down here in Aus we actually have a fair variety of ISP's so it isn't that much of an issue. I'm paying around $50/month for 200GB of downloads at about 3.86Mb/s down and 0.62Mb/s up, which is pretty standard for my area.

 

[Snowy Rainbow]

Down here in Aus we actually have a fair variety of ISP's so it isn't that much of an issue. I'm paying around $50/month for 200GB of downloads at about 3.86Mb/s down and 0.62Mb/s up, which is pretty standard for my area.

I'm a fellow Aussie and I just wanted to point out that although we have lots of providers, they all use Telstra's infrastructure. We are all, in essence, going through Telstra.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

Down here in Aus we actually have a fair variety of ISP's so it isn't that much of an issue. I'm paying around $50/month for 200GB of downloads at about 3.86Mb/s down and 0.62Mb/s up, which is pretty standard for my area.

I'm a fellow Aussie and I just wanted to point out that although we have lots of providers, they all use Telstra's infrastructure. We are all, in essence, going through Telstra.

While this is true, only Telstra makes us pay through the nose. Also, iinet has its own ADSL2 infrastructure.

 

[NormalityImpaired]

my ISP throttles bandwidth to a consistent .6 Mbps +/- .05, or to put it another way, just below the level needed for even the crappiest of streaming media. The cap is not clearly stated in the AUP (Acceptable Use Policy), but they do mention that throttling may happen if they feel you are using too much bandwidth based on monthly usage tracking. Normally it is around 3-5Mbps around this time though (2AM). I have a hard time understanding tech support also, i sometimes want to tell them to take the mic out of their mouth and then talk, but i resist.

 

[Snowy Rainbow]

Down here in Aus we actually have a fair variety of ISP's so it isn't that much of an issue. I'm paying around $50/month for 200GB of downloads at about 3.86Mb/s down and 0.62Mb/s up, which is pretty standard for my area.

I'm a fellow Aussie and I just wanted to point out that although we have lots of providers, they all use Telstra's infrastructure. We are all, in essence, going through Telstra.

While this is true, only Telstra makes us pay through the nose. Also, iinet has its own ADSL2 infrastructure.

They do? Shit. That must have cost a fortune to set up. Too bad I never seem to live in an area that can have ADSL2 or I happen to live next door to someone who has it on a split pair gain -___________-

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

Down here in Aus we actually have a fair variety of ISP's so it isn't that much of an issue. I'm paying around $50/month for 200GB of downloads at about 3.86Mb/s down and 0.62Mb/s up, which is pretty standard for my area.

I'm a fellow Aussie and I just wanted to point out that although we have lots of providers, they all use Telstra's infrastructure. We are all, in essence, going through Telstra.

While this is true, only Telstra makes us pay through the nose. Also, iinet has its own ADSL2 infrastructure.

They do? Shit. That must have cost a fortune to set up. Too bad I never seem to live in an area that can have ADSL2 or I happen to live next door to someone who has it on a split pair gain -___________-

And this is the down side of our country's internet. Horrible coverage.

 

[Snowy Rainbow]

Down here in Aus we actually have a fair variety of ISP's so it isn't that much of an issue. I'm paying around $50/month for 200GB of downloads at about 3.86Mb/s down and 0.62Mb/s up, which is pretty standard for my area.

I'm a fellow Aussie and I just wanted to point out that although we have lots of providers, they all use Telstra's infrastructure. We are all, in essence, going through Telstra.

While this is true, only Telstra makes us pay through the nose. Also, iinet has its own ADSL2 infrastructure.

They do? Shit. That must have cost a fortune to set up. Too bad I never seem to live in an area that can have ADSL2 or I happen to live next door to someone who has it on a split pair gain -___________-

And this is the down side of our country's internet. Horrible coverage.

I like to think we live in the best country on Earth (no offense to anyone else - pure opinion there) but hot damn is our net behind. South Korea is miles ahead of the U.S and the U.S is miles ahead of us. It's not fair!