Alright, I'm aware that the US has some rather (extremely) crappy broadband infrastructure, so I can see why you would want somewhat faster and cheaper, but bear with me.
Erhm. So my broadband-provider called today out of the blue and asked me if I was pleased with my current service (25mbit/sec for 29Ea month, around 38 USD or so). I confirmed that I was, and braced myself to ignore a pointless salespitch. Well, the pitch didn't come. Instead, the man in the phone said that they would be upgrading me to 100mbit/sec, four times as fast, if I just signed up on their website and confirmed.
"What's the catch?" I asked.
- "No catch, we're just upgrading our infrastructure and your apartment-building happens to be one of the first to have it installed. It's the same price as before.
" Uh, so 100/mbit a sec for 30E?"
- "Yes."
-" Okeeey..."
After I hung up, I started thinking. "Why the hell would I ever need this?"
I could come up with two reasons anyone would ever need that fast a connection in our current world.
1: They really, really love their online games, and can't handle the tiniest of lag.
Sure, I used to play a shitloads of WoW, and lag bugged me to no end, but with my 25mbit/sec connection, the only time I ever truely lagged seemed to be when the servers were overloaded. So in fact, even if I had a 1000mbit/sec, it wouldn't help me if the servers couldn't handle the traffic.
2: Downloading stuff. I.e pirating stuff. That's the sole reason I could think of anyone ever needing faster than what I already had. I already load everything online in an instant unless the servers are heavily taxed (*cough* Escapist on Wednesday *cough*), even online streaming is perfectly smooth. The only time something lags for me is due to my computer getting a bit old and can't process things fast enough. So this is most likely the same for everyone else in my area, right?
So pretty much my broadband-provider is encouraging me to download stuff (meaning pirate, in most cases. How often do you otherwise really download things that take any considerable amount of time? When downloading from Steam, perhaps), and that seems to be their entire selling-point.
"Go fast, go bigger!"
- "Uh, why?"
- "Well..Eh..Makes getting that latest Game of Thrones DVD a lot smoother!"
Now I'm not complaining that I got it for free, I just wonder what the hell ordinary people would ever use it for, and thus why the insane rush to upgrade an infrastructure that most already aren't using to their full potential as it is. I get that it is a marketing-strategy ("We got the fastet and cheapest!"), but hell, this just feels redundant, especially since most people don't play online games anyway!
(And oh, I live in Sweden, if you want to know)
Erhm. So my broadband-provider called today out of the blue and asked me if I was pleased with my current service (25mbit/sec for 29Ea month, around 38 USD or so). I confirmed that I was, and braced myself to ignore a pointless salespitch. Well, the pitch didn't come. Instead, the man in the phone said that they would be upgrading me to 100mbit/sec, four times as fast, if I just signed up on their website and confirmed.
"What's the catch?" I asked.
- "No catch, we're just upgrading our infrastructure and your apartment-building happens to be one of the first to have it installed. It's the same price as before.
" Uh, so 100/mbit a sec for 30E?"
- "Yes."
-" Okeeey..."
After I hung up, I started thinking. "Why the hell would I ever need this?"
I could come up with two reasons anyone would ever need that fast a connection in our current world.
1: They really, really love their online games, and can't handle the tiniest of lag.
Sure, I used to play a shitloads of WoW, and lag bugged me to no end, but with my 25mbit/sec connection, the only time I ever truely lagged seemed to be when the servers were overloaded. So in fact, even if I had a 1000mbit/sec, it wouldn't help me if the servers couldn't handle the traffic.
2: Downloading stuff. I.e pirating stuff. That's the sole reason I could think of anyone ever needing faster than what I already had. I already load everything online in an instant unless the servers are heavily taxed (*cough* Escapist on Wednesday *cough*), even online streaming is perfectly smooth. The only time something lags for me is due to my computer getting a bit old and can't process things fast enough. So this is most likely the same for everyone else in my area, right?
So pretty much my broadband-provider is encouraging me to download stuff (meaning pirate, in most cases. How often do you otherwise really download things that take any considerable amount of time? When downloading from Steam, perhaps), and that seems to be their entire selling-point.
"Go fast, go bigger!"
- "Uh, why?"
- "Well..Eh..Makes getting that latest Game of Thrones DVD a lot smoother!"
Now I'm not complaining that I got it for free, I just wonder what the hell ordinary people would ever use it for, and thus why the insane rush to upgrade an infrastructure that most already aren't using to their full potential as it is. I get that it is a marketing-strategy ("We got the fastet and cheapest!"), but hell, this just feels redundant, especially since most people don't play online games anyway!
(And oh, I live in Sweden, if you want to know)
