Question: Those outside of the UK, what is your internet/digital service like?

[Parasondox]

Hello everyone at the Escapist,

Now, I am a little confused about something here when it comes broadband and tv services in other countries. When I heard about Comcast buying Time Warner, many people in the US complained about the bad service these companies produce and a limit restriction on services it's like if Sky brought Virgin Media. This country would have a massive problem with that and parliament would just step in like they did when Rupert Murdoch News Corp/International wanted to have full shares of Sky News.

Here in the UK, there isn't really a cap on the usage apart from the speed you get, (10mbps, 20mbps, 50mbps, 100mbps) and that's with broadband like BT, Virgin, and third parties like Talk Talk, Plusnet and Sky. Unlimited usage, speed varies depending on broadband package. I know someone in Australia who says they have an unfair cap on their internet that if they go over a set limit, the whole internet stops until the next month. Is that a pricing issue or just companies there trying to get more money off of it's consumers?

Also with TV, is network TV channels like NBC, Fox, CBS, ABC, etc, something you get as standard with a TV. I know how cable channels like SyFy, AMC and other work but why is HBO, Showtime and others viewed as PPV in the US?

SO how exactly does it all work where you live and do you have some sort of cap with your broadband? Does price vary too?

 

[Zhukov]

Australian here.

Apparently our internet is shit by many other standards.

I pay $80AU a month. I can't remember what the advertised speed was exactly, but when downloading I usually peak at about 800kbps. Yes, that's kbps, as in kilobytes, not megabytes. (There's actually something that I don't understand on this point. The "connection speed" you pay for is never the same as the actual download rate you see when, well, downloading. Are there two different measurements here, or is that just the effect of traffic and whatnot?)

I have a download cap of 150gb per month. If I go over that then my connection speed drops drastically for the remainder of the month, but it doesn't cost me any more. I've never gone over that limit, so I don't know exactly how bad it gets.

It basically does everything I need it to. I can download large files, although really big things like games from Steam I have to leave to download overnight or while I'm at work. I can play games with decent latency on local servers.

 

[Zontar]

Rural Canadian.

At the moment the only affordable internet is a municipally owned service which provides for 60$CAN: 100GB download per month at 5MBps. Though this is going to change soon since the largest communication company is going to install fiber in the next 2 months which will allow for unlimited download with 5MBPS download at 98$CAN(although it should be noted that this is a bundle which also includes out phone service and our cable).

 

[Foolery]

Another rural Canadian. I pay around $70CAN a month with a 20GB limit, they charge an additional 5 bucks for 30GB more. My speed is supposed to be 1.5MBPS, but in reality works out to 500KBPS. Pretty fucking terrible. Long story made short, stay away from satelite, kids. Unfortunately, it's the only option available here, aside from the local ISP which is shit and will charge you out the ass if you go over 10GB. Fuck, I should pack up and move.

 

[Comocat]

Australian here.

Apparently our internet is shit by many other standards.

I pay $80AU a month. I can't remember what the advertised speed was exactly, but when downloading I usually peak at about 800kbps. Yes, that's kbps, as in kilobytes, not megabytes. (There's actually something that I don't understand on this point. The "connection speed" you pay for is never the same as the actual download rate you see when, well, downloading. Are there two different measurements here, or is that just the effect of traffic and whatnot?)

I have a download cap of 150gb per month. If I go over that then my connection speed drops drastically for the remainder of the month, but it doesn't cost me any more. I've never gone over that limit, so I don't know exactly how bad it gets.

It basically does everything I need it to. I can download large files, although really big things like games from Steam I have to leave to download overnight or while I'm at work. I can play games with decent latency on local servers.

Typically ISPs sell you service using "megabits" because it sounds faster than it actually is (MBs). If you divide your service plan by 8 (or multiply whatever you download by 8), that will tell you more practically what speeds you will download at. For example, I'm capped at 3 MBs ($42 per month) so what that means is I download around 300 kb/s. Netflix is barely functional and God help me if my wife or I try to browse the internet while trying to watch a movie.

Edit: USA (Houston) I live in the middle of the 4th largest city in the US and the fastest internet speed I can get with DSL is 3 MB/s. ATT finally rewired our complex to resolve nightly outages, but no hope in sight for faster internet.

 

[Mersadeon]

Germany here - I'm with Unitymedia, getting both Landline (and yes we actually use the landline) and 50mbps. Service is pretty darn good, we only had one problem and even then the technician was there the very same day. Wait times on their service hotline are completely reasonable, and the Internet service itself is cabsolutely consistent. I like.

 

[Lucius Ivanov]

I live in small town in Spain, about 100 km north of Barcelona. I can't get a fibre optics due to my location and that "privilege" is usually limited to big/bigger cities.

They advertise only in Mb(Megabits), never in MB(Megabytes), a bigger number sounds more tempting.
The offers here in Spain are:
- 3/4G USB Modems that normally have a traffic limit(around 1-3 GB) and if you exceed that limit your speed will drop do Dial-up standards.
- DSL that goes from 1 Mb to 35 Mb and has no traffic limit. DSL has crappy upload speeds.
- Fibre Optics that go up to 200 Mb and also don't have a traffic limit. Has decent/awesome upload speeds.

In my house I have the best DSL connection that is available at my location. It's a 30 Mb(Advertised)/ aprox. 29 Mb(Real) download, with 800-900 Kb(Real) upload. This also includes basic landline(Free calls to national landlines).
This also includes a 5?/month insurance for technical breakdowns.
For all this I pay around 50?/month

I don't have cable as I barely watch TV and the stations the TV gets trough the antenna are more than enough(around 35 stations). Note that they changed the broadcasting from analogue to digital a few years back(Digital Terrestrial Television).

 

[Ryotknife]

Mine is nice.

We pay I think 100 dollars a month for internet, cable, and phone. (although there is an offer right now for the same package for 80 dollars)

According to speedtest.net:
Download: 30.8 Mb/s
Upload: 25.72 Mb/s

National grade: A (88%)
Global grade: A (90%)

No limits, and im in a residential district. College connections don't count . Its nice being able to download a game off steam in less than a hour. Should have specified, American from NY state.

 

[Dr Hammer]

There are usage caps on broadband services in the UK, but they are normally rolled inside something called a 'fair usage policy' (look out for this marked with an asterisk any time you see 'unlimited' broadband on marketing material). This allows ISP's to throttle down your speed if they perceive you to be using a lot more bandwidth than anybody else on your service.

As for the speed you get, this is normally hard capped by the type of broadband service you have (usually advertised as up to 20Mbps/10Mbps, etc.) but is then affected by other factors like the length of the cable to the local exchange, numbers of people on the same circuit, etc.

The UK has really stepped up it's game over the last 5 years or so, but we're still a long way off countries like Germany or Japan.

 

[Inhaps]

Mine is quite nice. Unlimited internet and 60 channel television for some 19 euros a month results in this: http://www.speedtest.net/result/3317798921.png

And it gets capped by my cheap router. With direct connection via the ethernet cable it basically doubles.

http://www.speedtest.net/result/2886178895.png - old result but still holds true.

 

[anthony87]

Ireland here, I use this one:

http://www.upc.ie/bundles/tv-broadband-phone/complete-bundle/

Pretty damn good considering the price.

 

[crazygameguy4ever]

in the US here. NY state.. I use Road Runner and it's around 15mbs download speed.. no limits/usage caps.. get internet and HD cable together as a combo package for like $150 a month.. it's work good for me.. lags a bit on some online fighting games but i don't play online game enough for it to matter to me... only one I play regularly is DC Universe Online on my PS3 its works just fine, with no lag.. youtube and other video sites all work fine, no lag. so no real complaints

 

[Parasondox]

Ireland here, I use this one:

http://www.upc.ie/bundles/tv-broadband-phone/complete-bundle/

Pretty damn good considering the price.

That's actually a good deal. "Record 4 shows while watching a fifth", you luck so and so. Here with Sky it's only record two at a time and watch the third on your freeview. It sucks because I had 4 shows series linked and one week they all had their schedules at the same exact time of 10pm. So I had to record 2 for 10pm and watch the third on freeview (lucky it was on BBC so no adds) and had to watch the forth on +1 but in SD not HD. 200MB? We just got 100MB a few years ago.

No wonder many in the US and Australia complain cause you are paying so much for so little. 800kbps?!?!?! F*** that. How the hell is your government, those in the US I mean, allow the monopoly situation of Comcast and Time Warner to even happen? That's taking the piss and I apologise. And I thought UK/EU was bad.

Also was that another factor in the complaint about "always on" and "DRM" because if you had to have your Xbox ONE on all day, it would just exceed your cap limits and slow your net down to dial up speed?

 

[Gandanga11]

Zimbabwean

I spent a year in Swansea in 2013 and it was magical. I could do something with my laptop that i never thought possible in Zim, stream movies. Then i came back to Harare and the internet i get is from a company called Econet at 512kb/s and it costs US$35 per GB. Some companies like Zimbabwe Online charge as much as US$180 for 512Mb. There is now fiber optic but that costs US$900 to install and US$1500 for unlimited internet. 3rd world problems.

 

[Eeeee0000]

the Netherlands here, apparantly we have one of the fastest internet connections in the world.

I pay about 15-20 euros a month I think (it's included in my rent as it's student housing, so I can't choose another service). advertised speed is 100 mb/s. When I use an ethernet cable, speedtest tells me actual down and up speed is something like 90 mbs, so pretty good. I bought my own modem though, so it's more like 24 down / 17 up. Still pretty decent, my ethernet port is in a really stupid place in my room and I have a laptop, so I manage. Still want to buy a cable of a few meters for online gaming, but haven't gotten around to it.
When I download a torrent or steamgame, downspead is something like 3MB per second, this is always lower than download speed for loading pages etc.
It's unlimited, of course. We haven't had bandwith caps for home internet in ages, only on mobile phones.

 

[Angelowl]

Swede here. I make do with my phone, 2Mb/s fairly stable for no money at all. Infinite use, got lucky with that one as that is practically unavailable novadays. Too slow for youtube and watching streams, but decent enough to play games online without any serious issues of lag. My parents pay about 5 euro for 8 down/ 2 up. It was a 2/2 but they got upgraded free of charge. Pretty damn decent for living on a farm.

In the cities you can get 100/100 if you want it. I know that they usually offer that ridicolusly cheap to student appartments.

Fun thing, our government was outraged when we no longer was the number 1 country in terms of internet infrastructure, Japan and South Korea had beaten us. So I guess I can not complain in about the infrastructure, they seem to be adamant to get proper internet to every little hut in the country, and half of Sweden is pretty much only trees so quite a challenge.

 

[Mersadeon]

Just found this, thought it might be fitting: http://imgur.com/gallery/Wr6Tlv1

A graph showing stuff pertaining to this thread.