High Speed Internet Providers Reviewed

Like to surf the internet?  Be glad you are not in China!  Recently, Google experienced an outage, which was thought to be due to their own technical updates, but later was determined to be caused by China’s “Great Firewall”.  China has many restrictions on search engines and the web, and tech companies have experienced a great deal of frustration trying to comply.  The most recent event was caused by China’s internet filtering.  In a country that bans Facebook, Twitter, and Google’s own YouTube, how can any information flow freely via broadband?  The internet is meant to be a highway of information, a free exchange.  Creating a cyber traffic jam in a nation of a billion people will only lead to less than state of the art technological development.

AT&T is currently setting aside the ISP issues just like Verizon Internet Service access and controversy prices due to their massive bandwidth upgrade based on HSDPA technology. It will make the 1.7 Mbps download speed to 7x faster. No definite date yet, when it will take effect. Wireless internet is slowing making it’s name, and mobile users demand for more speed. They are also give hints when their so-called “Long-Term Evolution” (LTE) technology in wireless technology will be released. It promises a 100Mbps download speed that will be launched between 2012 or 2013 the least. AT&T claimed that they want to provide more than internet service but bringing its subscribers the content and application that they need without worries.

The rising issue and controversy on metered internet access and other policies adopted by ISPs has been the top of the IT news. AT&T Internet Promotions are continuing strong with the introduction of Uverse. According to many providers, it’s not about controlling, throttling heavy internet users or about attempting more income. But, it’s on how to give measures between the peak and off-peak hours and to reshape internet usage without hurting the majority of the subscribers. AT&T is considering usage-based pricing that will affect only a certain number of subscribers. The company may start testing the usage-based pricing this fall.

Internet Service Providers comparable to Time Warner Road Runner Internet access service are changing the way on how they charge their customers’ bandwidth consumption. We are in the era where users use the internet more than before. Video and music downloads are everywhere. And, ISPs are having a hard time to cope up with the demand for more speed. Now, ISPs are trying to make both ends meet. The idea started with Time Warner’s metered internet consumption. And, it seems like others will follow depending on the result. AT&T’s approach seems different. They suggest a usage based internet charge setting a low peak cap at night and a high off-peak cap during the rest of the day.

US have been suffering from slow-broadband speeds over the past years compared to those in Japan and South Korea. But finally, ISPs like AT&T, Verizon, Comcast DSL internet service and others are now using fiber optic upgrades to provide a 10-50 Mbps download speed across the US. The cost may not be as competitive as those in other countries but the internet providers are trying to find ways on how to lower the cost without hurting their pockets. To give you an idea, we are looking at a price in between the range of $100 – $150 for a 20 Mbps speed a month. But, as competition heats up between wireless broadband and DSL or cable internet service, anyone can assume that it will force ISPs to lower the cost in the next few years.

Why on earth would anyone want to restrict free content on the internet. Believe it or not there are some activists out there pushing for censorship on the internet. This is not only a problem here in America, but it has become an issue in other countries around the world. And by “problem” i mean the people creating the fuss. The internet is the ultimate expression of free speech and your voice can be heard all over the world. Why suppress that. Ultimately, the responsibility and right to filter information belongs to the user.  It is fairly easy to block certain type of content if you don’t want it. So keep freedom of expression alive so we can continue to progress as one society.