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How many ISPs can you choose from for your home network?
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Grelb's Reminder:
Eighty percent of all people consider themselves to be above
average drivers.
(Score: 4, Informative) by requerdanos on Monday November 06 2017, @06:40PM
Satellite doesn't count either; similar reasons, that effectively boil down to much (much, much) higher costs for the same use.
We stream video and I download Linux ISOs. For example, I downloaded the complete Debian 9 "Stretch" Amd-64 blu-ray set to have something with which to test my shiny new blu-ray burner. That alone was a 60 gigabyte download, torrent-sharing all the way. Even given unlimited time and money, I doubt that could be accomplished on 3g. With satellite, it could, of course, given the unlimited money to pay per (giga-|mega-|tera-) byte. Might as well just make a bonfire with the money and ask me to mail you the blu-ray set.
In the abstract, it might be possible to make a case for satellite or 3g internet, but I don't live in the abstract: I live in a location where a "rural membership cooperative" has a monopoly, and they are the only provider available. Sure, I get 200Gbit cable internet from them for less than $100 a month, and I like it, but I'd still like to have choices, and 3g and satellite providers just don't offer anything close to what cable Internet does, for anywhere near the price. They'd be fine for "email and web browsing" assuming you don't email big documents, and don't browse sites with big files, but the survey isn't about "email and web browsing," but about ISPs, and those by definition should give you meaningful Internet connectivity.
As an aside: I hereby condemn all ISPs -- mine included -- that give out fake private IP addresses to their cable modem customers instead of real IP addresses. That makes any kind of direct connection (IRC-DCC, jabber, inbound VNC, etc.) not just difficult, but actually physically impossible. My ISP (atmc.net) charges an extra $10 a month for a static IP, which they offer as the only solution--otherwise you're in a DHCP pool with useless 10.* addresses (pretty much only good for, again, "email and web browsing"). I told them I didn't need a static address--they could change it ten times a day if they want--it just needs to be an Internet address and not a "private" address. Pay the $10 or get lost, they said (paraphrasing). Did I mention that I selected "one" in this survey because they are the only ISP serving my area?