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Comment by Nextgrid | Hacker News Reader

You have many ISPs to choose from. There are not many "Googles" nor "Apples" to choose from.

My apartment, smack bang in the middle of Manhattan, has a single coax cable opened by Spectrum, and is the only option for me to get reliable internet connection. I have no choice but to (1) sign whatever their ToS are, (2) pay whatever they want to charge, and (3) have them do what they want with my metadata. I’ve decided it’s not the hill I want to die on, but no, I don’t have many ISPs to choose from.

You have at very least: * Mobile connection, a few carriers * Starlink/Eutelsat

It's not perfect, but nowhere near Google/Apple duopoly. Also this is very local US issue, solvable on city level regulation, while smartphones are everywhere.

You also have the option to move. I mean, that's not ideal, obviously you don't want to have people up and change addresses to deal with a problem with a single company, but if you end up on both Google and Apple's shitlists, there's nowhere you can go to where Schmapple is a third option.

Starlink in an apartment in the middle of Manhattan? Suggesting Eutelsat is just funny frankly.

Eutelsat has pretty reasonable unlimited data package at $75/MO. Might only be available in Europe & Africa though.

>Might only be available in Europe & Africa though.

Yep. We just need to move Manhattan there. Problem solved.

It's crazy how some people think there's no solution when the solution is "clear as an unmuddied lake...As clear as an azure sky of deepest summer."[0]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Clockwork_Orange_(film)

Doesn’t Manhattan have radio based ISPs like 5G providers? Perhaps not ideal but far from a single ISP provider.

Depending on where you live, a lot of times you don’t many to choose from. Maybe 2-3, but sometimes only one with fast enough speeds that it becomes the only option.

So they are effectively utilities and must be regulated accordingly.

Where?

Cellphone providers + Starlink mean there’s more than 3 options in basically every US home.

Even in places without those, there are a ton of little hamlets in BFE around me that have one guy that gets fiber from wherever is cheapest, then runs a point-to-point directional antenna relay system to a home-brew ISP.

We're talking about participating in society not Netflix. There are a lot more options for that, including mobile and even good old dial up.

I have exactly one to choose from. Two thirds of americans households have exactly two, exactly the same number as the count of googles and apples.

Than your region has a problem that your government should work to fix. Just like the one with Google/Apple.

That's not a universal problem though, so random people on the internet won't relate.

Two thirds of Americans could connect to the internet via:

- Starlink

- AT&T wireless

- T-Mobile wireless

- Verizon wireless

The choices of fixed ISPs is often more limited (in my area, the physical options are AT&T copper, Xfinity cable, Monkeybrains wireless).

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