• Vodulas [they/them]@beehaw.org
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    16 hours ago

    Consumers can pick a subscription with a data cap, or they can pick one without.

    I am in a major metropolitan area and I do not have an option to have no data caps. Even the slow internet plans have them. I don’t think you realize the stranglehold telecoms have on consumers.

    • spoonbill
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      8 hours ago

      If there is no reason for caps, why wouldn’t one of these companies simply remove them, giving them a competitive advantage, and making them more money? Why would one company reject making more?

      Maybe capless actually costs them more due to bad infrastructure, and they don’t see consumer demand for it? Forcing them to go capless would in that case result in higher prices.

      Maybe they form a cartel and have collectively decided to keep caps. But why, if it doesn’t actually cost them more to remove the caps? And if it does, then prices would again rise if forced to go capless.

      • Vodulas [they/them]@beehaw.org
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        7 hours ago

        Around here they charge for going over your cap, so easy profit with no regulation would be the likely culprit. Also, you keep talking about competition, but there are 2 whole broadband companies in my area, and one does not have fiber/gigabit in my area. That is not what anybody would call healthy competition.

        • spoonbill
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          3 hours ago

          Indeed two companies is not really competition. So why not focus on that, instead of reducing choice, which may lead to even less competition by making differentiation harder?

    • spoonbill
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      8 hours ago

      The solution to lack of choice is even less choice?

      Fight monopolies by adding choice, not just accepting that monopolies/cartels are natural and just the way things have to be.

        • spoonbill
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          3 hours ago

          Data caps are on all plans.

          Nonsense. There are lots of plans without caps. Maybe not where you live, but at most that means caps should be banned where you live. IMHO it makes much more sense to require offering a cappless plan, rather than banning capped.

          Edit: Googling for “capless internet usa” gives as the first result https://broadbandnow.com/guides/no-data-caps, listing several providers.