Cable Companies Launching Network for Wi-Fi Roaming

[exfileme]

Five North American cable companies have established a "Cable WiFi" network for accessing the Internet outside a user's home broadband market.

Cable Companies Launching Network for Wi-Fi Roaming : Read more

 

[blazorthon]

Isn't this basically what Optimum WiFi does?

 

[fb39ca4]

Does it count towards data caps?

 

[face-plants]

[citation][nom]fb39ca4[/nom]Does it count towards data caps?[/citation]
Great point. I have Comcast and have used their free wifi around town many times when in a bind on several occasions. I haven't done anything more than look up directions or phone numbers until now. With the coverage area increasing, I'm sure I'll be using the service much more often instead of getting gouged by my wireless carrier. If the usage does count towards data caps, it will be a lot harder to keep track. If it doesn't, I may have a backup plan when I get close to the data cap. Especially since I can reach one of the WiFi spots from my back porch.

BTW, this service has been available for about a year and I live 2 hours away from Philly at the southern most point of New Jersey so this service isn't totally limited to urban areas.

 

[eklipz330]

google needs to really rescue this country. lift caps, cheaper and faster internet. i bet if google can set up their entire network and offer very reasonable prices, no one will ever look at any other ISP ever again. they can seriously create a monopoly if they chose too

 

[blazorthon]

[citation][nom]eklipz330[/nom]google needs to really rescue this country. lift caps, cheaper and faster internet. i bet if google can set up their entire network and offer very reasonable prices, no one will ever look at any other ISP ever again. they can seriously create a monopoly if they chose too[/citation]

Are you seriously asking for Google, one of the most privacy invading companies known, to become a monopoly in the USA ISP business? Monopolies are usually bad... Without competition, Google would have less reason to act competitive.

 

[jdog2pt0]

I miss Bright House D:

I had them with a 20mbit connection when I lived in Florida. Now I live in Utah, have no Comcast so I'm stuck with shitty ass Century Link DSL. God I hate DSL :/ (Complaining about the connection, Century Link seems like they're okay).

 

[caparc]

Access to the internet is becoming so important to the viability of communities I'm surprised there aren't municiple services similer to water and sewer. Too bad the white space frequencies went by the wayside. Why did I think that was too good to be true?

 

[TeraMedia]

Collude much?
The only thing that worries me about this is that it further concentrates the provision of internet access towards the cable providers. They already have most of us stuck without viable alternatives (FiOS, 3G and 4G are not widely deployed, and DSL, well... just ask jdog2pt0). With this move they are further entrenching themselves to be indispensable and irreplaceable. I love the idea of being able to use WiFi for free in large cities as part of my service provier's offerings. I just wish I had the ability to choose the service provider in the first place.

 

[bak0n]

Time to put wifi hotspots on telephone poles.

 

[classzero]

[citation][nom]blazorthon[/nom]Are you seriously asking for Google, one of the most privacy invading companies known, to become a monopoly in the USA ISP business? Monopolies are usually bad... Without competition, Google would have less reason to act competitive.[/citation]

Current competition (monopolies) are not working. We are not leaders in broadband. ISP's refuse to update their infrastructure. Instead they throw data caps and other money milking techniques to keep us down. What we need is a ISP Spring here in america.

 

[dark_lord69]

[citation][nom]fb39ca4[/nom]Does it count towards data caps?[/citation]
Your cable internet provider gives you data caps!?

WOW!
That's lame...
Even Comcast, Charter and Time Warner don't do that...
Are you sure your not getting you cell phone carrier/data plan confused with your cable internet provider?

Most cable internet providers allow unlimited data. Which is a good thing cause I spend a lot of time on Netflix, Hulu as well as downloading huge files and playing games. While I'm doing all that, my wife spends lots of time uploading and viewing videos and pictures on Facebook. She also downloads books and watches Netflix on her Nook tablet.

 

[dark_lord69]

Sorry for the second post but I just wanted to add that I'd honestly like to see Google (or any other non-greedy company) wire the whole city with fiber optics. (For ultra high speed internet and more HD cable stations) Why? because then Charter and Comcast would have competition and it would be nice to see a cable TV/Internet price war in this city. (Local monopolies are Bulls..t!!) Everyone in the country is overpaying!

In the small town of Madison SD there were 2 cable Internet providers to choose from which ment you could get broad band for as little as $25 a month. Now I live in the Minneapolis area and pay Charter $60 a month for internet.

 

[targetdrone]

[citation][nom]dark_lord69[/nom]Your cable internet provider gives you data caps!?WOW!That's lame...Even Comcast, Charter and Time Warner don't do that....[/citation]

What a troll thing to say.

 

[Guest]

Umm... Kevin, since when does the US constitute North America?

 

[blazorthon]

[citation][nom]dark_lord69[/nom]Your cable internet provider gives you data caps!?WOW!That's lame...Even Comcast, Charter and Time Warner don't do that...Are you sure your not getting you cell phone carrier/data plan confused with your cable internet provider?Most cable internet providers allow unlimited data. Which is a good thing cause I spend a lot of time on Netflix, Hulu as well as downloading huge files and playing games. While I'm doing all that, my wife spends lots of time uploading and viewing videos and pictures on Facebook. She also downloads books and watches Netflix on her Nook tablet.[/citation]

Actually, many (most?) ISPs with decent speeds give you data caps in the USA, they're just very high caps (250GB is common).

 

[dalethepcman]

[citation][nom]dark_lord69[/nom]Your cable internet provider gives you data caps!?WOW!That's lame...Even Comcast, Charter and Time Warner don't do that.....[/citation]

As other mentioned most cable ISP have caps, including the one's you mentioned.

 

[gfair]

Shaw Communications has active WiFi hotspots throughout its region that are in active use right now, too.

 

[face-plants]

Comcast has had data caps for at least the past year. The cap is 250Gb per month and you can check your usage on the Comcast website yourself. Talk what you know instead of trolling.

Tom's just recently had an article stating that Comcast was doing a trial run of "tiered bandwidth plans" where the cap would be raised to 300Gb/month and it would cost something like $10 per month for every addt'l 50Gb used. Tom's also stated that the current data cap of 250Gb would be lifted on all accounts outside the trial area. I have not found this to be true however since 5 mins ago the Comcast site showed me at 187/250Gb used for the month. Regardless, they have caps on Comcast as well as verizon DSL and FIOS and I'm sure most of the other ISP's do as well if you were to spend a few mins researching before posting.....