No - you pay for high speed ACCESS to the internet. Not a high speed connection to the internet, that would be a tier 1 or 2 connection.

Amen to this!

Yes... Someone who gets it! We provide internet to Rural communities via Sat transport. a 1:1 of 1mbps of transponder space is something more then 2K per month. To deliver that 1 mbps to one individual who pays $80/mnth would be insane. So, we oversubscribe, we use compression and acceleration and do the best we can.

Except users don't bitch about access during the low points... Right?

Let's put this to rest. You are a taxpayer in a state/city where there are 4 lanes of road going in and out of the heart of your city. During rush hour, congestion hits and it's go, stop, go stop. You and all the other citizens who pay taxes in the city/state complain that something must be done. 5 years later there are 6 lanes of traffic. Rush hour is still go, stop, go stop. See where I'm going here? This is a cyclical problem that has no solution.

Internet access from an ISP is not a 1:1 and never (I mean never - even days of dial-up) has been. If you can't see that, well then.....

As I engineer an ISP network, I'll tell you up front that there is no such thing as 95 percent. Users ALWAYS will consume what is available. Been there, done that.

I disagree. Everyone has a choice in the US. It is not Comcast's fault that your (an individual's) pockets are not deep enough to build your own infrastructure. Again, they are a business - internet access is not a right. Over the last decade I've watched as the tide has swung from the "I'll work hard to get what I want in life" attitude to the "Society owes me something" attitude.

So - Internet access is Universal Healthcare now? Comcast is a business designed to make profit yes? Best way to make profit in the internet business is to maximize your resources. A 100 percent full pipe is an efficient use of their resource. Geeze, slashdot is so full of whiners and babies it sickens me. Nothing prevents you from shelling out the dough to buy a dedicated 1:1 ratio pipe from a Tier 1 or 2 provider. Oh, wait, it costs to much? Then stop your bellyachin'

Get on the treadmill, go for a run, etc... Stop stressin' dude.

Yeah, that's rock solid there.... "according to" "My Uncle Joe who is extremely cynical and" "familiar with the matter". FTFY

Take a read on William Forstchen's One Second After for an interesting persepective on how we (as a society) would not do well if suddenly thrown into the dark ages. It is very enlightening.

Look, I don't mean to be nit-picky, but I really wouldn't want a surgeon looking up a procedure while I'm open on his table. Or a dentist looking up a root-canal procedure while my jaw is open wide. Some education HAS to be ingrained to a certain point.

I'm looking forward to committing the pillage and plundering knowing I won't have to remember the consequences afterward...