I've been wondering why bandwidth is the key talking point when data caps have a much worse impact on my life. I can stream Netflix all day and night and never hit my cap. But let me update my operating system or download a few development tools and watch. Suddenlink's answer is that if I'm going to further my skills as a programmer or develop anything, then I need to have a business connection for $200/month. You know, before I ever finish a product and therefore before my connection is ever used for a business.
Suddenlink is assuming the authority to tell me what I'm allowed to study, and they're penalizing me if I don't comply. That's a lot worse than not having the fastest connection in the world.
Having more bandwidth doesn't mean much if you can't use it for anything without having your bill spike. That's why there will be a mandatory increase to minimum 50 Mb/s locally, the cable company is insisting that everybody has to buy a new modem, and data caps are not being increased. Just another way for them to spend our money for us, and our only alternative choice is to have no service.
I can't even patch Star Citizen without having to pay Suddenlink $10 to do so. I'd rather my speed stay as it is, but my caps go up so I can at least use the bandwidth I have.
Maybe this doesn't affect others the same way. The specifics are localized, right? And I know that bandwidth is important for research and services. I care about that. I just wish that I didn't have to pay multiple times to actually use what I'm already paying for.
I suspect that making bandwidth the key talking point is actually a clever bit of guerrilla marketing. It's a genius stroke in the piracy chess game, I have to admit. But it would be nice if caps were realistic enough that mundane usage didn't result in an unpredictable bill.
Not to mention, if your OS and router both report different usage from what your ISP bills you for, then you can't do anything about it. We're pretty much stuck paying whatever they happen to make up. That happened to me before, and the Better Business Bureau simply closed the complaint with a comment that they're not there to help me "slander businesses". Gee. Thanks.
I really don't understand why nobody seems to care about that obviously terrible problem. While everybody assures us that we won't end up with metered billing, it's hard to believe because that's basically what we already have. At least I can verify my electric bill by going out to make sure the meter says what they claim. Here we are selling ourselves out to be totally at the mercy of the same companies who screw us in every way they can imagine, every chance they get.
Bottom line, if that higher download rate leads to newer, better services, then it won't matter because the way things are going, most people won't be able to use them.