Change is comming.... in a few years I hope

I can't take credit for the FCC info but I will provide links, but I want to pass along the info. The FCC has recently gone into a "lets fix this" mode and is starting a overall of America's internet and network speeds and access across the nation. Sounds like a revolution doesn't it. Well I hope so. The FCC has taken a look at how poor and expensive internet and networking cost have gotten. I for one have Charter Communications as my ISP (internet service provider) and for the cost of what they deliver.... well not exactly a good deal, but for what is available it is sadly the best option.

So quick look at what is available. Starting with High end first.

Fiber

Cable

DSL

3G/4G hotspot setups

Clearwir

Dial-up

So Fiber is the best if you can afford it. If you can have fiber ran to your house or business you will have ridiculous speeds but you will also have a ridiculous bill but you will have everything you want. Most ISP's run side lines off of a main fiber line for most neighborhoods which is why your speeds are poor or okay at best. But if you have a direct line with fiber you have no bottle necks and no speed problems

Cable is the "thats what I have" for most area's. Cable is most of the time "reliable". You can get some okay deals for decent speeds with cable, high end cable is around 60 to 80 bucks for 25 Mbps. You will almost never get that while actually using your connection. But average home user will most often go with 10 Mbps to 15 Mbps speeds for 30 to 50 bucks. As I said above you will bottle neck with this due to a whole neighborhood using the pipe line and its basically like rush hour traffic, you can move a little at a time, but it takes for ever!

The bottom three are the low end, and not worth it in my opinion. DSL is a service provided by the phone company and they run your internet connection through the phone lines. You will see a max speed of around 2 Mbps. Yeah you read that correctly.

3G/4G hotspot setups are a newer trend that can get better with time. Basically what you do is pay a cell phone provider a monthly data fee for accessing their cell network for surfing the web. You put the device in a place that receives the best cell signal, and it then gives WiFi to up to 5 devices. I have not been able to test this or use a mobile hotspot device so I can not verify the speeds or reliability of its use.

Dial-up is dead. Well unless you want to give your money away. In today's standards of web content you can not access anything with dial-up due to waiting hours upon hours to even see a small result of your waiting.

Okay links to the info, the FCC will hopefully be doing some good things and helping to improve the overall use and pricing and access to the internet and paying for assess from your ISP. FCC Speedtest info Speedtest.net