A survey conducted earlier this year by the Pew Research Center found that 7% of Americans lack access to reliable broadband. One reason for this may be how expensive internet access is in the U.S.
"People in the U.S. pay more for slower internet than people abroad," Open Technology Institute policy analyst Claire Park said. "For many consumers, the cost of getting online right now is simply too high and also too complicated."
The Open Technology Institute has been studying the price and speed of internet services advertised within the United States as well as abroad. Its 2020 Cost of Connectivity Report found that the average advertised monthly cost of internet in the U.S. is $68.38, which is higher than the average price of internet access for all of North America, Europe and Asia.
Outdated infrastructure in the U.S. may also be impeding internet access to millions of Americans, and lawmakers have been debating how to increase internet availability and performance.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by RS3 on Monday October 11 2021, @04:34PM
More and more cell phone providers are converting to VOIP / VoLTE only- no more 3G/4G/LTE (SS7) voice.
Basically they're converting from "circuit-switched" (SS7) to "packet-switched" networking. Many are providing an app you install to make voice calls if your phone doesn't natively support VOIP / VoLTE.
This might help explain: https://www.netmanias.com/en/post/blog/10905/lte-volte/part-1-what-happens-when-a-user-performs-a-voice-call-from-an-lte-4g-network-overview [netmanias.com]