AT&T Customer Since 1960 Buys WSJ Print Ad to Complain of Slow Speeds | Hacker News Reader

AT&T Customer Since 1960 Buys WSJ Print Ad to Complain of Slow Speeds

arstechnica.com

45 pointsm4634 comments

TIL it costs less to take out a 1/4 page ad in the WSJ than I would have thought.

But, as to this man's complaint, I agree. Internet speeds in general are just too slow. I think the problem stems from two things:

1. ISPs, particularly cable providers, are frequently local monopolies, and

2. ISPs are allowed to advertise "up to" speeds without any reporting on actual speeds.

For point 1, there are really only two things that can be done to fix the situation: either accept that cable providers / ISPs really are natural monopolies due to last mile effects, or introduce regulation to create competition. If we decide they are natural monopolies, the thing to do here is to eliminate private companies from the last mile equation entirely, just like we do with other natural monopolies such as electricity, water, and sewer services.

As for increasing competition, I'm honestly not sure what would be the thing to do here. How exactly can one encourage companies to compete in local markets when they seemingly just don't want to? Subsidies don't seem like the answer, but there has to be some means of making markets attractive to other companies.

Point 2 is fairly easy: make ISPs advertise more realistic, "average" speeds. We would need regulation to clarify exactly what that means, but it would be a huge step forward for truth in advertising.

The ad only ran in two geographic markets, not nationally. So your guesstimate is probably closer to the national rate.

I get that. But, you can still reach a lot of people for $1100. Dallas has a population of ~1.3M, and Manhattan has a population of ~1.6M. And, I expect that copies of the WSJ bought in Manhattan might filter out to the other 4 boroughs.

> AT&T is not Epstein's only option for wired Internet service. In fact, he said he pays for both Charter Spectrum's cable Internet and AT&T DSL at home but generally only uses AT&T Internet because, he said, "in order to get phone service, I have to use the AT&T modem." He noted that a technician could probably set things up so that he could use AT&T phone service and Charter Internet. But with the pandemic continuing, Epstein said that he and his wife are playing it safe by not having any visitors in the house.

They choose what they get themselves. Do they think fiber service would magically appear and be connected inside the home without a technician coming in?

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