Bandwidth and rural ISPs

[wove]

Living in a small town in the middle of nowhere, we have lousy internet. In the evening we will get 1-1.5MB/s, durning the day they slow that down to 0.5MB/s to allow more bandwidth for commercial users. So this morning I was surprised, when I downloaded a file and found I was getting ~6MB/s. That is the highest speed I have ever seen. I hope it holds.

We generally have enough bandwidth so the family can all surf the web for reading, and shopping. One person can watch a video stream, but we do not have enough bandwidth for one to watch YouTube and the other to watch a different YouTube stream. So anyway it would sure be nice if these faster speeds are part of some permanent upgrade rather than just a fluke.

[crosscourt]

Youve mentioned before that the speeds are really poor where you live. Arent there alternatives like satellite or other related to cell phone networks?
I havent seen speeds that slow since DSL years ago as in my area the slowest is 50mbs to 1gbs for the average user. Im getting 240mbs down and 12mbs up with Comcast.

[wove]

The only reason much of rural fly over America has phone service and electricity is because the government mandated it and incentivized it. High tech companies, cell providers and cable companies have successfully fought that happening. I can drive 6 miles out of town and not have cell phone service. A friend of mine that lives there still uses a 56k dial up modem, or comes to the community center in town to use the free wifi. We pretty much got what we got. My internet is on par with everyone in town. I know of no one that has the bandwidth you speak of, our local providers do have 40mbp/s plans but very very few are willing to come up with the $200 a month to have it. People with families and cell phone family plans will often add an internet hot spot device to their plan at a price competitive with the ISPs. I am not sure it provides greater bandwidth, but their big complaint is the service comes with data caps attached.

My boost in speed was just temporary thing and this morning I am back to a normal 8-10mbp/s. It is enough to make this post.

[crosscourt]

A 40mbs plan here with Comcast costs you $29.99 plus your gateway assuming you dont buy one.