Cable company fuckery, writ large.
Whoohoo, go capitalism!
While I’m not the biggest fan of telecoms, this graph also shows that the more people who saturate a line, the lower the throughput, perhaps more than it show foul play. Though it is ISPs, so foul play is a given.
In college our dorm broadband was horrible in the early evening, but ridiculously fast in the mid-morning, was this foul play, or just not having to share the pipe with everyone else?
Pretty certain America isn’t the birthplace of the internet. Co-founder perhaps, and cradle at best, but not its birthplace.
Maybe you are thinking of the World Wide Web? That started in 1990’s at CERN. The internet however, definitely began in the U.S.
What’s the surprise? Reading my user agreement with Comcast I see that no level of connection speed is ever promised–only the maximum is given.
Wait… thousands of Americans? You do understand the difference between thousands and millions?
Seems like American enterprises become wealthy due to the advantages of a well regulated capitalism, and then they squander vast portions of their wealth undermining the regulatory apparatus, apparently for fear that somebody else might “win” too. I’m still not convinced this is a fault inherent in capitalism per se, since it’s pretty similar to the way political systems break down. Maybe it’s human nature, or maybe it’s a western cultural thing? I dunno.
Can you point out a non-market-based, non-capitalist system that has resulted in better Internet Service provisioning? I’m trying, but not coming up with any.
South Korea is the example that comes to my mind. Though, it only seems to meet half your criteria.
Wasn’t South Korea wired by a 100% capitalist enterprise? I seem to remember Doug Humphrey arranging the rollout, or maybe he was trying to bid the contract… maybe 16-18 years ago?
Government mandated and supported, not driven by market demand. Thus, why I said it only met half your criteria. They also claim to have the cheapest internet service in the world. To Usian eyes, that part doesn’t look particularly market-based or capitalist. Then again, the US is probably the place where the term “market bearance” was coined.
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