I'm an unfortunate captive of the oligopoly of the internet industry in the USA. In many places, you have 2-3 choices of internet, and all of them suck ass. I'm in this situation. All internet providers in my area have a 1-1.5 terabyte data cap. So when I download Call of Duty for 250 gb and it fails and has to update or reinstall, I've wasted 500 gb, and have now reached 50% of my data cap in just 1 day. There are crazy fees, for example, Cox Cable says:
If you go over, we’ll automatically add 50 gigabytes of data for $10 to your next bill. That's enough for about 15 hours of streaming HD video. If you use that 50 gigabytes, we automatically add another 50 gigabytes for $10 and so on until you reach our $100 limit of data overage charges or until your next usage cycle begins.
So your $90 a month internet can easily become $190 a month, which is fuckin criminal, like that is so scummy and asinine how that can even be legal. But it is perfectly legal. The FCC is also looking into these data caps but now that we have a new anti-federal government president elect... This is probably toast.... Nothing will change now that most federal agencies are about to be deleted.
From a technology standpoint too, nothing is really getting better
Comcast is still using Coax instead of Fiber Optic and desperately trying to convince people that somehow, someway coax can be just as good. Do with that info what you will, I have no opinions on it. There was a Federal program started recently to expand rural internet access, which will probably be gutted in 2025 leaving many without suitable internet again. Fiber Optic is fast, but still, not new technology, and doesn't solve a critical issue.... It doesn't matter if you have 2 Gigabit internet if no one in the world is uploading even half that fast. A single download on Steam is like 450 Mbps, Epic Games launcher is horrifically slow. I get like 120 Mbps max when downloading Fortnite updates even with 1500 Mbps internet hard wired to my router with top tier hardware
It's just sad to think about the future of internet in the USA, and knowing we'll be imprisoned by these data caps for the foreseeable future.
Have you not seen over the last couple of years the proliferation of like the T-Mobile Home Internet, Verizon Home Internet and AT&T Home Internet? They provide you a box that sits in your window and connects you to the cellular network using Wi-Fi for your entire house. It's not like those little hotspots used to get a couple years ago. Those had limited Wi-Fi range and could generally only be connected to like 10 devices at once, where these are full home internet replacements.
That’s still just a cellular modem stuffed in to a much better router though. It’s a cellular connection. Yea, with 5g it’s a ton better than 3g, but it’s a cellular connection, provided to you by a cellular network operator. Cellular network operators are their own thing, regulated by the FCC as their own thing, whether the cellular connection is happening on your phone or on your cellular company provided router, it’s still connecting to the cellular network.
Look. Starlink is a satellite internet provider right? But you understand that no wires are physically connecting the starlink terminal to the starlink satellites right? It’s “wireless”. Starlink is not a WISP, it’s a satellite internet provider. T-Mobile or Verizon or whoever aren’t WISPs, they are cellular network operators. They are separate and distinct things.
Language has meaning, words have meaning. A WISP isn’t just an ISP using technology that doesn’t need a wire to your house, it’s a specific thing. You’re using it wrong.
Edit - I can put a SIM card in my MikroTik right now, then unplug the Ethernet cable that runs to my ONT box, and have unbroken internet access. That doesn’t suddenly make the cellular network provider a WISP, it makes them a cellular network provider. I’m accessing the cellular network. They’re providing me access to the network over cellular. Idk how else to explain this.
I see what you're saying, but most people are not going to take that nuance into account. To them, since there is not a wire connecting the device to the network, it is a wireless ISP.
I understand that, but they’re wrong.
To the layperson all internet is Wi-Fi.
True. Wifi or cell data. They don't really think about how it works. They just think about whether they have an LTE or a 5G icon in their status bar.