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Sandstorm

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I was excited it was planned to come to Chicago, but then budget cuts happened, and it looks like this is not happening :(

Fortunately, one thing Fiber did, it scared all the big ISPs, and they all started offering gigabit internet at various prices. My own RCN, for example, is now offering 1 Gbps internet for $70/mo (for 12 months, then I imagine it will jump to 80 or 90), which is still stellar compared to the 75 Mbps (plus data cap) for $70 I was getting from Comcast several months back.

So I probably won't be able to join the Fiber club, but I might join the gigabit internet one, and that's almost as good :)

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We don't have Google Fibre in Europe, but I honestly don't think we need it. At least in Poland, from what I know, the Internet providers are all right and the speeds are good. Also, we've never ever heard of data caps on anything other than our mobiles. Even 15 years ago, when I got my first Internet connection, there was no limit on the data transferred.

I think the best I can currently get in Warsaw as a regular customer is 600 Mb/s. That's more than enough for a normal family with several devices sharing the connection. I personally have 70Mb/s (for $17 a month) connection and I really don't feel like I need any faster.

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Europe in general, and Eastern Europe in particular, has good Internet. Actually, it might be the case that the US has bad (and/or overpriced) Internet, which is why we are excited to finally get something good. I too had something like 50 Mbps for the equivalent of $5-10, and that was over 10 years ago. 

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I've been on Google Fiber for almost 2 years now, and when it's working well, it's very good. When it's not working well, it's on par with most other internet services in the US. Though when it's working poorly, it feels like it's actually worse because you get spoiled with the good times. So that's fun. :P

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On 18.11.2016 at 8:57 PM, Sandstorm said:

Yeah, the US is definitely lagging in terms of internet coverage.  I know someone from a small town that pays $90 for 1.5mb down and 500kb up.  It's pathetically over priced.

The data caps are a joke too.  Just a corporate scam to nickle and dime their way to irrelevance.

I've also heard that in US, credits cards with microchips are a novelty o.O I wonder if there are touchless payments in US...

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3 hours ago, Mestiv said:

I've also heard that in US, credits cards with microchips are a novelty o.O I wonder if there are touchless payments in US...

They've been phased in for the past eighteen months or so so that they're much more common now. 

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6 hours ago, Mestiv said:

I've also heard that in US, credits cards with microchips are a novelty o.O I wonder if there are touchless payments in US...

The tech has been around for a bit, but they're only now coming into common use. Most banks (including my own) are only now switching over to chip-enabled debit cards.

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On 21.11.2016 at 5:06 PM, Ookla the Unpredictable said:

The tech has been around for a bit, but they're only now coming into common use. Most banks (including my own) are only now switching over to chip-enabled debit cards.

Hold on. You mean uptil now you were using the magnetic stripe? I barely remember them.

I always thought USA is so up-to-date with new tech and all; stop shattering my beliefs!

On 18.11.2016 at 11:22 AM, Mestiv said:

Also, we've never ever heard of data caps on anything other than our mobiles.

Only if you happen to live in a big city, though. I live just a hundred meters or so from the border of the city and I've been putting up with a cap for five years now. Right now it's 22GB per month per household although earlier (year or two ago) it was 10GB. Three computers in use.
And speed is about 1,3 mb/s (and it was supposed to be LTE. LTE my chull). Fortunately right now my family is switching to some other provider (as this one is crem) and there is one offering 300 mb/s. Without. Any. Cap.

Fingers crossed that I'll be posting in the Good News Thread soon :)

EDIT: Numbers can be off. Magnitudes can be off. Stay tuned.
EDIT2: yeah, mb not kb.

Edited by Ookla the Sunrise Watcher
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2 hours ago, Ookla the Sunrise Watcher said:

Only if you happen to live in a big city, though. I live just a hundred meters or so from the border of the city and I've been putting up with a cap for five years now. Right now it's 22GB per month per household although earlier (year or two ago) it was 10GB. Three computers in use.
And speed is about 1,3 kb/s (and it was supposed to be LTE. LTE my chull). Fortunately right now my family is switching to some other provider (as this one is crem) and there is one offering 300 kb/s. Without. Any. Cap.

Fingers crossed that I'll be posting in the Good News Thread soon :)

You sure that's kb/s and not mb/s? 300kb/s is slower than my internet from 10 years ago...

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On 28.11.2016 at 0:41 AM, Mestiv said:

You sure that's kb/s and not mb/s? 300kb/s is slower than my internet from 10 years ago...

We'll get back to you :D (I have to go ask the admin but he's asleep now)

I think that's what my dad said although I'm not sure and he could have had a slip of the tongue. I never checked.

Speed test gives me 4.4 Mb/s down and 0.3 Mb/s up. But I'm the only computer online right now. So probably the numbers in the previous post should be k->m. Or M. Double convention :/

Edited by Oversleep
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On 11/27/2016 at 3:34 PM, Ookla the Sunrise Watcher said:

Hold on. You mean uptil now you were using the magnetic stripe? I barely remember them.

I always thought USA is so up-to-date with new tech and all; stop shattering my beliefs!

The original hope in the banking industry was to leapfrog over chip card technology to the next level, because the chipped plastic is so much more expensive to produce.  The Target hack triggered an uproar about fraud, though, and pushed it forward.

The irony is that chip cards wouldn't have actually done anything to prevent or mitigate that particular hack.  It's both amusing and distressing to see how clueless the general public is about technology.

 

Oh.  And also I have Google Fiber.  It's fast.  Living in the Kansas City metro has the occasional weird advantage.

Edited by Ookla the Mythical
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On 11/28/2016 at 8:51 PM, Ookla the Mythical said:

Oh.  And also I have Google Fiber.  It's fast.  Living in the Kansas City metro has the occasional weird advantage.

I thought the same thing when Provo was one of the first cities to get Google Fiber. Just like Kansas City. Not exactly the cities you'd think Google would jump to first, but I'm not complaining. :P

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