New report shows that data caps are a scam

[HeyCori]

Or simply put... duh!

You can read Ars summary of the report or check out the whole thing straight from the source. (it's a very long read)

 

[palandri]

We're at the mercy of the providers here in the states. They don't compete; they play follow the leader. If they can get $60, we can get $70. If they can get $70, we can get $80. If they can get $80, we can $90, and on and on. Ask WeeBear what he pays for 3 in the UK.

My wife and I go to France a couple of times a year. For 49 euro ($64 usd) a month you get a home phone, home internet, internet TV, and a mobile phone plan. That's through Orange, there are cheaper plans out there.

 

[Laura Knotek]

When I was in college, one of my professors was a guy originally from Europe who still travels to Europe every year. He mentioned how much cheaper and better broadband Internet service is in Europe.

 

[eric12341]

People were cancelling their cable TV service and just started to stream Netflix and Hulu. Can't be having that.

 

[Daniel Ratcliffe]

We're at the mercy of the providers here in the states. They don't compete; they play follow the leader. If they can get $60, we can get $70. If they can get $70, we can get $80. If they can get $80, we can $90, and on and on. Ask WeeBear what he pays for 3 in the UK.

My wife and I go to France a couple of times a year. For 49 euro ($64 usd) a month you get a home phone, home internet, internet TV, and a mobile phone plan. That's through Orange, there are cheaper plans out there.

Read through part of the original source... they should start charging $200billion for every KB... the revolt would be EPIC. Perhaps enough to force people to actually make people go to the white house en-masse and have legislation introduced.

And while I'm not TheWeeBear, I am also on Three, and my parents have home broadband with Sky. I think we pay ?16/mth for Sky Broadband. Truly unlimited, no caps, no nothing. Just unlimited fibre broadband. Combine that with The One Plan on Three for ?25/mth on a 30-day rolling contract (2'000 any-network minutes, 5'000 same-network minutes, 5'000 texts, and All You Can Eat, AKA truly unlimited, data with tethering included), and we have a winner.

 

[palandri]

... and have legislation introduced....

In the states, a few years back, there was a big debate over, "Net Neutrality". The FCC got involved and the governments position was, if you purchase X amount of bandwidth, you should be able to use it however you see fit. Broadband providers argued that, "Net Neutrality" meant it was free from government regulation and the FCC has no authority to regulate the internet.. At this time a few broadband providers were demanding that Netflix's (a major streaming movie company) pay them a fee to stream movies or they would block their streaming service, and/or demanding extra fees from customers.

In the end, the FCC was able to tell home internet providers that they had to follow their definition of, "Net Neutrality", but they left wireless internet providers on their own without further regulation.