How fast is fast internet speed?

[agnivo007]

Well, a few months ago I got fed up waiting for Starlink

You think that'd be cheap and available real soon!? I think not, that's just a case like tesla.

Here's a review:
https://www.cnet.com/home/home-internet ... ed-it-out/

Yes, starting from the 56k modem we had (that disconnected 6 times an hour and barely offered 36k real speed, high costs) to ADSL/VDSL (I was the first one to get it in my locality, it was costly and rain/storms devastated it), then on, now to fiber (which seems cheap and standardized). We have had world's cheapest 4G mobile broadband in India, inching towards 5G now. I guess 10Gig Fiber will be the norm in the next 5 years for fixed broadband.

[Gaer Boy]

I have a hybrid fibre/copper connection - the last 1/2 mile is overhead copper. I'm getting a reliable 38Mbps download and 8.4Mbps upload. The download often peaks above 40. This all seems fast to me, but then I started with a 300/75 bps modem. No good for today's colourful world but I managed to do online banking with it.

[agnivo007]

but then I started with a 300/75 bps modem. No good for today's colourful world but I managed to do online banking with it.

I'd be very keen to know the interface to it... over the terminal or very simple webpages?

[andyprough]

@agnivo007 - I think $8 a month would be impossible in America. I was used to paying about 10X that much, and would love to have an $8 option

@MCreaves - $80 for 10Mbps/0.8Mbps - that's highway robbery. As far as speed making a noticeable difference, I agree that going from 10Mbps to 100Mbps is a huge difference maker. But going from 100Mbps to 400Mbps probably hasn't made a difference for me since most servers aren't uploading at anywhere close to that rate. I think the 400Mbps is really being packaged for homes where everything including TVs and video games and doorbells and refrigeraters are all on the wifi. I don't run my house that way, so probably won't ever get the benefit, but at $50 a month that's the new "basic" plan for my neighborhood now.

[MCreaves]

@agnivo007 - I think $8 a month would be impossible in America. I was used to about paying 10X that much, and would love to have an $8 option

@MCreaves - $80 for 10Mbps/0.8Mbps - that's highway robbery. As far as speed making a noticeable difference, I agree that going from 10Mbps to 100Mbps is a huge difference maker. But going from 100Mbps to 400Mbps probably hasn't made a difference for me since most servers aren't uploading at anywhere close to that rate. I think the 400Mbps is really being packaged for homes where everything including TVs and video games and doorbells and refrigeraters are all on the wifi. I don't run my house that way, so probably won't ever get the benefit, but at $50 a month that's the new "basic" plan for my neighborhood now.

Personally, if I have more funds to play with, I would totally "automate" my home. Over the years I have toyed with some ideas but the equipment is just too costly still to make everything like I want, but I can totally see how such homes would benefit from higher speeds. I know my security cameras really benefited from the upgrade in upload speed. Instead of quickly getting behind in the phone app, they remain synced and streaming is smooth. I can imagine someone with a 8+ camera system would use a lot of bandwidth if they were checking all the cameras. My work (small business) has 16 cameras and the app lets you stream all at once to have an overview.

As for highway robbery, yes. They charged what they wanted because they knew my options were limited. Closer to the city they were charging people about $40 a month for 30Mbps down (not sure up speed). Now they are getting paid back because they lost me as a customer and a lot of people are leaving their company due to the newer, better, and cheaper options in the area.

[andyprough]

I have a hybrid fibre/copper connection - the last 1/2 mile is overhead copper. I'm getting a reliable 38Mbps download and 8.4Mbps upload. The download often peaks above 40. This all seems fast to me, but then I started with a 300/75 bps modem. No good for today's colourful world but I managed to do online banking with it.

I started many years ago with a 2400 baud modem (I believe that was 9600bps). Internet involved phoning into a local server and hoping they had connections you could jump on out to the broader world, and it was all terminal based. That's pretty funny that you were able to do internet banking with your modem - I'm assuming the communication was flowing in plain text? Today's hackers would have a field day emptying out bank accounts.

[Gaer Boy]

I'd be very keen to know the interface to it... over the terminal or very simple webpages?

That's pretty funny that you were able to do internet banking with your modem - I'm assuming the communication was flowing in plain text? Today's hackers would have a field day emptying out bank accounts.

This was 1986 and I was still using DOS, so it was very much terminal-based. You didn't actually need a computer - just a TV and a phone connection. Bank of Scotland were technically very forward-looking, the first UK bank to computerise accounts. Brief summary here: https://www.bankofscotland.co.uk/helpce ... itage.html. This wasn't my main account - I opened it specially to try out this amazing service, and it worked well enough.

The 300/75 bps was also used for Prestel, a blocky text-based information service. My Pace modem did a lot of work for a number of years.

[agnivo007]

Read that page, now how did they do that? (hookup TV to a phone, when people used to hookup a terrestrial antenna or even a VCP/VCR)
Did they have analog-phone connected Settop boxes back in 1985 and used phone-dial keys for input? Or just a rudimentary IVRS over analog phone service? I don't get the math...

EDIT: Now I understand some equations of it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prestel

[Michael-IDA]

I think $8 a month would be impossible in America.

The US’s total government requirements for doing business is too high to support anything under about $30-50/month. At least half of the cost to the US consumer goes to pay for direct and indirect taxes and to pay to comply with other government regulations.

T-Mobile is offering home internet (5g) at my location ($55 a month). I've seen about 100Mbps down and 50Mbps up. Sometimes it's faster, sometimes it's slower.

We pay about $150 to AT&T for a ‘bundle’ that has 100Mbps Up/Down and are looking to replace it with T-Mobile’s 5g internet. T-Mobile is saying $50/month here. Did they quote you $55, or is the other $5 buried in the fine print?

I’d also like to ask is T-Mobile reliable? Have you had any service outages? Like most I’d guess, anything above 50Mbps (6.25MB/s) is basically transparent to my day-to-day needs. Sure if I’m dropping a 75GB client website tarball, a higher speed is noticeable, but ‘eh, that’s what rsync is for...

Thanks,
Michael

[MCreaves]

I think $8 a month would be impossible in America.

The US’s total government requirements for doing business is too high to support anything under about $30-50/month. At least half of the cost to the US consumer goes to pay for direct and indirect taxes and to pay to comply with other government regulations.

T-Mobile is offering home internet (5g) at my location ($55 a month). I've seen about 100Mbps down and 50Mbps up. Sometimes it's faster, sometimes it's slower.

We pay about $150 to AT&T for a ‘bundle’ that has 100Mbps Up/Down and are looking to replace it with T-Mobile’s 5g internet. T-Mobile is saying $50/month here. Did they quote you $55, or is the other $5 buried in the fine print?

I’d also like to ask is T-Mobile reliable? Have you had any service outages? Like most I’d guess, anything above 50Mbps (6.25MB/s) is basically transparent to my day-to-day needs. Sure if I’m dropping a 75GB client website tarball, a higher speed is noticeable, but ‘eh, that’s what rsync is for...

Thanks,
Michael

When I first checked my address to see if my address was serviced, it was $55 a month. After I ordered service, I noticed the website was changed to say $60 a month. However, with autopay, they took $5 off a month so now I'm paying $50 a month for it. The signal quality where I live is "weak" according to their router, so sometimes it flakes a little, but it generally works well thus far.

Some drawbacks I have found: the router "admin" page, if you can call it that, is a joke. You can do almost nothing. You can set the wifi password, admin password, change some wifi settings, and that's about it. The router has no external antenna port and the display on it is on the top, which is a little awkward since you will probably have to physically put the router up high in a room to get a decent enough signal. Also, if you don't have an actual T-Mobile branded phone number, you will not be able to check up on order status or log in (create an account with them) until the modem arrives and they email you the phone number of the modem. Also, at least right now, it seems that their customer support for the home internet has an hour or two wait. But, once you do get through, the reps are actually decent and you can actually understand them. Another drawback, it seems the wifi signal from the router is kind of weak compared to other routers I have used. It seems their modem/router combo has some design flaws and firmware issues, but I also presume they will eventually get all of that sorted out. It's also good to keep in mind that although there is no upfront cost, you better make sure you will send the equipment back if you leave them because they will charge you for it if you don't (they say). One final drawback is how long it takes to get to the full speed. It can take a few seconds from the start of a download until you get to the full speed. Not a problem for a big download, but can be an issue with large/heavy websites. If a website seems to stop loaded, reload it. There is a known firmware issue where if you disconnect the power, the whole modem is reset despite there being a battery in it. It's supposedly being worked on.

Some good stuff I have noticed: Even with a weak signal, the speeds are quite nice. The price is fair. They claim no data caps, so no intentional slowdowns. I couldn't get them to tell me at what point bandwidth usage would be considered "abusive", but it seems to be beyond 400GB a month from how the rep acted. In my first month, I used less than 100GB. The customer service reps are actually decent. The router is packaged well and is pretty unobtrusive. It comes pretty much ready to go. Unbox it, plug it in, get the app they say to get, and configure it (basically passwords).