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Comment by LeifCarrotson | Hacker News Reader

> ISPs were once a beacon of innovation bringing in broadband

I don't remember this time period. Any examples?

In the mid to late 90s going from 56k to 6Mbps was amazing. Now they are just local monopolies with fake competition abusing their position and trust.

ISPs are actively holding back on innovation / expansion and that causes less innovation in the US competitively.

> FCC report finds almost no broadband competition at 100Mbps speeds [1][2].

> Even at 25Mbps, 43 percent of the US had zero ISPs or just one [1][2].

[1] https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2018/02/fcc-r...

[2] https://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/201...

Late 90s/early 2000s when there were tons of smaller isps offering a variety of solutions. This was back when operating a CLEC was a viable option before the incumbents found a way to fix that issue.

I really miss these days. Sure the internet speeds were painfully slow, but I knew my ISP. I could go have lunch with them. I could borrow compute resources during slow times.

I think when the cable companies started monopolizing the internet and the web because commercialized, that's when we lost a lot of computing's early "innocence".

I'm sure someone will say I'm romanticizing that period, but darnit, just let me.

For a while, the best and cheapest ISP in Montreal was a beauty products company. They had a shit ton of modems in a back store and a very good admin I guess.

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