• “cheating” meaning doing the exact same thing a regional telecom monopoly has been doing since AT&T was incorporated in the early 1900’s. On the other-hand 5G can’t “compete” with traditional broadband and had to lobby the FCC to be considered broadband at all. In all likelihood wireless internet will never be a viable alternative to fiber/copper infrastructure if you look at latency, over-subscription, and the effect that density has on service in addition to theoretical speeds.

    will it be “good enough” for most people, sure. But most people were perfectly ok with dial-up internet until streaming video became the norm too. It doesn’t mean that dial-up should have existed as long as it did.

    In conclusion, internet service should be a utility with highly regulated SLAs and minimum service agreements. Or just skip the liberal bullshit and nationalize the telcos.

  • Article promotes fucking 5G home internet but in the article states “[t]he only fix they had was splitting the cost of a Verizon 5G router with a roommate, but that was also too slow to be usable most of the time” before they go into their gushing about how these 5G home internet solutions are the savior of all.

    Paid advertisements for shit services can’t even keep from bad-mouthing these shit services. Technology is so fucked over by all these greedy corporations selling garbage solutions to suckers.

    • I mentioned in the article that 5G home internet is not a solution for everyone. The reliability varies significantly by location and network quality—some people have no issues, for others it’s unusable. It’s not a perfect solution that will fix the US’ infrastructure problems, but in the meantime it is making a difference for some people.

  • My 5G phone’s internet sucks compared to the Spectrum I have at the house. Spectrum sucks compared to the Frontier fiber alternative, but I am currently in the Spectrum part of the cycle of having to alternate between them to avoid paying 2x as much. I think Spectrum is starting to realize that they suck because there full rate for my current plan is only about $5 more than Frontier’s promo rate. I imagine they are hoping that I dislike switching enough that I’ll eat the extra cost to avoid switching. If Frontier would just let me have the promo rate all of the time, they would get more money from me, but I guess too many people are too lazy to switch for them to do that.

  • It’s funny how the author is complaining about the incentive for companies to become monopolies under capitalism, and leaves it up to another corporation to lobby for a change. And that voting democrat will help prevent the monopoly too.

    Direct and collective action might be better. Such as gathering the tenants together and everyone agreeing not to pay the internet service provision that was forced on them. That would pressure the landlord to not make a deal like that again.

    • I would like to see more collective action, but it’s also incredibly difficult to put your housing situation on the line when the US (and most states) does not give you a functional backup. As you said, it’s capitalism at work.