Big Telecom Eyes More Broadband Usage Caps (And A Tax On Big Tech) As Revenues Sag; + more notable news

All us fiber peeps can scream "we have no caps" all we want, but mark my word. When there is NOTHING left but fiber, the caps will start showing up. All it takes is one big name to bring them online and the rest will follow. There is NOTHING and I mean NOTHING magical about fiber that will keep it from getting caps. Has nothing with capacity. It's the "R" word (revenue) and providers are hungry for it.

The antidote is a law that ensures all ISP offers the same minimal service that all consumers expect to get for their money. No caps, net neutrality, etc.... That ensures all ISPs are competing fairly and not lying.

I agree, 60% of Grinnell, Iowa can have Mahaska Communication Group Fiber or Windstream Fiber and 1Gb is the minimum with 0 caps from both. Both are arond $60 per month. The other 40% is MCG or Mediacom 1Gb WITH caps so MCG is crushing it here. Also T-Mobile 5GUC is here as well

I used to think that. But how many providers need to be in one area for it to make a difference? I just moved from an area that had 2 coax providers. AT&T came in with Fiber. Prices still went up.

Where I live now, 2 fiber providers, one coax. I'm not even taking wireless/Sat service into account at either my pervious or current location. Fiber price is almost the same. The NEWEST provider is $5 more then AT&T for fiber. Now, to their credit, they don't charge for hardware, but the price includes all fee's. The coax provider is another story. They are overall more expensive due to eqp costs (Sparklight).

So, I have to disagree about the competition. It's a pipe dream from years gone buy. Not to say if, say, CoastConnect, dropped it's price to $60 (or less) for their gig fiber, I'm sure AT&T MIGHT drop their price. Kinda reminds me of seeing 3 gas stations all at the same intersection. One is a Shell, one is a Clark and one is a Marathon. They all charge the same price. Now, the soda and 7 day old hotdogs might differ in price, but gas price is the same. They don't have to compete. And unless the motive is to poach customers, then raise the price 12 months or 6 months later, but in my experience, 2 or 3 providers don't do much in price reduction.

Best reason to replace with ( visually-different ) fiber. ( And not just in Canada.)