The real broadband

Internet service providers have for ages hawked higher downstream access speeds, and the consumer has had little or no idea of which tier actually makes sense for thier usage pattern. They normally find a middle-tier package to play it safe and call it a day, hardly using it beyond the lowest tier's specifications.

As history suggests, this has resulted in service providers overselling their network; claiming to provide 16mbps or higher while knowing that their users would not come anywhere near the sustained usage levels that they've purchased. When a few users actually try and use what they've paid for, they end up on the service providers's blacklist for using up too much bandiwdth and "hurting" other users around them.

What follows is a fairly typical story of demonizing those users by marking them as pirates while also toeing the "network neutrality" line. As a side-effect, the providers also institute a cap restricting users to what they deem to be a arbitrarily fair usage level. Even a user with their plain-jane 8mbps connection can reach the cap in 10-12 days if they max out their connection 24x7 the whole time. Higher tiers will not have any peace there and would have to meter their usage. This problem is exacerberated when users on the 50mbps tier come online. They can run out of this limit within 90 minutes of full-tilt usage!

So with the economy in shambles and provders running to mommy for bailout money, the billion dollar question is this - are there any service providers who actually deliver what they advertise?

I'm happy to say (after years of comcast rule) - YES! Wide open west is an ISP in columbus, OH and they are one of the rare few gems who actually hand out 8mbps connections that really are 8mbps when measured at the edge. My pc routinely shows 1MBytes/sec download speed from multiple sites. If you are lucky enough to have such a provider in your locality, push their names out in the comment area. We ought to make choices with our pockets rather than waste time complaining to the authorities. After all, capitalism has its benefits :)