F American ISP's

[Dirtbag59]

Originally Posted by SirClintonPortis

Unless you're making six figures or have a successful, profitable rental property, or something that helps you bear the cost of fiber, fiber is not an optimal decision. Oh, and by switching to fiber, you can't go back to cheaper copper services.

Caps are a different issue though. Cable internet is a "common good" at times of peak usage. It is rivalrous but non-excludable. That means that while everyone can use it, if there are too many users, the users prevent each other from enjoying the ""full" benefit of the service. The way cable internet works, the "pipeline" is shared between multiple users, and if it becomes "full" during "rush hour", service suffers.

Cable is still plenty fast for me (usually 18mbps to 22mbps on a wireless connection out of 25mbps) but it's not without limitations. For example when I play NHL 12 online I have to turn the internet off on my laptop to prevent lag. I rarely get problems with Netflix and Hulu but sometimes it's hard to get above their "Medium SD" quality.