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DownTheShore
Pray for Ukraine
Premium Member
join:2003-12-02
Beautiful NJ

DownTheShore to mod_wastrel

Premium Member

to mod_wastrel

Re: It's all about the money.

I dropped down to the lowest tier DSL from cable because I needed to financially retrench for a while. The speeds at that level (approx 900/200) are insufficient for today's internet that has any kind of video content. All those embedded videos in web pages, especially news providers? Forget about it. Streaming video? Forget it. Downloading purchased games or videos? Think hours of download time. Flash-intensive sites? You can go make a sandwich while you wait for it to load. (And yes, you can block Flash, but then you wind up with page that looks like it went through the Army censors of WW2).

Yes, you can email and yes, you can surf the net. But the web and its sites are no longer designed to minimize download times because the assumption now is that everyone has a fast process, plenty of RAM, and a fast internet connection.

mod_wastrel
anonome
join:2008-03-28

mod_wastrel

Member

Yeah, that is too slow for those tasks, but it's probably fast enough for people who don't really want to use the Internet in the first place except when they have to (email, pay bills, and things you just can't do any other way any more). I think the providers ought to come up with another plan for these kinds of folk: pick any day of the week and you can have full speed for that day -- every other day you don't get access -- so, you get typical access speeds on, say, every Tuesday for $9.95/mo. (or whatever amount that's small). I expect there'd be lots of people who'd be fine with that.
rradina
join:2000-08-08
Chesterfield, MO

rradina

Member

My parents live in BFE and all they can get is fixed wireless. They are in their 70s and asked me why e-mail jokes with links to YouTube videos don't play right. They said it stops and starts all the time and often it's so bad, they just close the video. I told them their connection was too slow.

Recently their ISP came out and upgraded their wireless equipment and now all the videos work. I don't know what speed they have but the days of claiming xxxx speed is good enough sounds just like Mr. Gates infamous 640K RAM comment.

One of the key aspects of why the iPad is wildly successful is because a local app is "fun" to use. It's so responsive to make screen taps and move through content.

If you have a fast connection, web sites can actually be fast enough to have new use cases.

Case in point, I used to loath clicking on MSNBC news links that opened the video player. It would sometimes take 30 seconds before the video started. As my ISP continues to increase speeds (18/3 now with PowerBoost and 30Mbps+ initial speeds), videos open relatively quickly. I can only imagine if I had a 100Mbps connection. The videos would probably start almost instantly and it would be more like flipping channels on a TV set.

Don't underestimate how even simple Internet use cases can benefit from very fast speeds.

mod_wastrel
anonome
join:2008-03-28

mod_wastrel

Member

There are plenty of people who have zero interest in video or streaming anything. They only want something functional that doesn't make them wait an inordinate amount of time. The frequency of access might be as much as several times per month--so nothing to do with "entertainment" or "fun". A lot of people just don't care about that "online world". (I've been dialing up since the early '80s, using the "Internet" since the early/mid '90s (hard to remember exactly when--loads of ftp before http)... so I have some frame of reference here.) As much as I use my access, the rest of my family pretty much ignores everything online, except for my totally tech-clueless sister [whom I sometimes wish would]. The broadband ISPs pretty much ignore this group of people who just want infrequent but reliable access.
itguy05
join:2005-06-17
Carlisle, PA

itguy05 to rradina

Member

to rradina
said by rradina:

My parents live in BFE and all they can get is fixed wireless. They are in their 70s and asked me why e-mail jokes with links to YouTube videos don't play right. They said it stops and starts all the time and often it's so bad, they just close the video. I told them their connection was too slow.

Part of that is YouTube. I'm on 25/15 FIOS and when streaming HD videos I get the start/stop buffering BS. I tried watching a video last night and I had to buffer for 10 minutes so it would play smoothly. My line tests at close to what it's supposed to so I know it's not that.
rradina
join:2000-08-08
Chesterfield, MO

rradina to mod_wastrel

Member

to mod_wastrel
And those folks are such a small minority that they will continue to be ignored. Perhaps that will change when the post office dies.

My thoughts are if 70+ year old farmers want faster speed, those that say they don't need faster speeds simply don't know, what they don't know. Those that claim to know and don't want faster speeds are in such small numbers that they are irrelevant.
rradina

rradina to itguy05

Member

to itguy05
Sure, sometimes it's the source but they had a fixed wireless service that delivered 512/256 with lots of packet loss. While still far superior to dialup or satellite, it was pretty poor service.

The next time I visit it'll be interesting to see how fast the upgrades have made their service.
davidhoffman
Premium Member
join:2009-11-19
Warner Robins, GA

davidhoffman to DownTheShore

Premium Member

to DownTheShore
"But the web and its sites are no longer designed to minimize download times because the assumption now is that everyone has a fast process, plenty of RAM, and a fast internet connection.". It would be nice for website developers to forced to design sites for real world internet data rates and not the 100Mbps symmetrical test labs they use. If the site does not work with a 1Mbps symmetrical internet connection, you have to redesign it so it does work. Yes, Adobe Flash will be one of the first things to stop being used. And get rid of all the advertising analysis that goes on during page load. I bet the WWW would run a lot better with much more prudent website design.