Cutting the Cord

[fenders53]

(07-05-2022, 11:04 AM)crimsonghost747 Wrote: Ahh so if internet is more like a monopoly then that explains it.
Over here it's essentially so that you can pick from several different providers, regardless of how far in the woods you live.
Of course certain providers will have better coverage in the middle of nowhere, and if you want fiber then your choices are quite limited if you are outside of a city.

So the majority of the people have the choice between several providers, all of which can offer you roughly the same service. That definitely helps to keep the price down. Over at my previous home country, it was common practice for your current service provider to just price match any offer you got from their competitors. So that really helped because you were almost happy to get a call from an internet sales person, you didn't even need to switch to another provider, just get their best offer on paper and forward it to the customer service of your current one with a "thinking of switching because I want to save $5/month, but I do like your service... perhaps there is something we can do to make me stay with your company?" and voila, cheaper internet!

If you want to stream everything off a phone contract you can dodge internet.  You can hot spot a desktop PC or whatever off a phone, until you hit a small limit and start paying up.  Cable got stupid.  You could sign an introductory deal and get it cheap for a year. If you don't trim back options it will double in a year, they go up 10% for random reasons until you call and put a leash on them.  It's a racket.  A lot of people don't notice they are getting ripped off right away, and time goes by before you do anything about it because it is a chore.  And internet varies.  I really only have one reliable choice.  You may have several choices in a more populated area.  My internet goes up 5% a year, and get's 5% less reliable the past three years.