- Joined
- Dec 1, 2011
- Messages
- 33,000
- Reaction score
- 13,973
- Location
- FL - Daytona
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Independent
That is only one factor. The bandwith available to the ISP is split among the number of users and the amount of data at a given time. Too many users on your ISP watching netflix at the same time will also slow it down. ISPs buy bandwith based upon average usage, not by the total possible if every user was using max bandwith at the same time. You may have purchased 3 Gb bandwith, but I guarantee you the ISP does not have the bandwith for all subscribers to use that 3Gb at the same time.
Pathing also plays a role as well as the bandwith capabilities of the nodes that are passed through.
That kind of bottle-necking for most ISP's is less common anymore, unless they're getting hammered by huge hits. But I agree, 3Gb for all users isn't possible right now, mostly, because no hard drive or SSD can write or even read at such speeds. You'd think most of the larger servers could deliver faster speeds at less cost, they simply don't want the added cost structure. AT&T has terrible cell service in some areas because of cell tower congestion. People using their smart phones for data, clogging up the service.
You seem concerned about Comcast/Time Warner merging. Seems you already know some of the competitors to look at if the price goes up too much.
You did read the part where it says that the two (Comcast/Time) have 1/3 of subscribers, uncontested? I'm in an area where only Brighthouse (Time) is offered thru cable and AT&T U-Verse (wireless) is a crappy deal. If all those companies were allowed to compete and have access to the cable, our prices would drop considerably from the competition.