The pipe
that we take for granted
We switched to unlimited internet several years back. I do remember the good old days when we used to keep track of internet usage. We used to get reminders at 50%, 75%, and 90% capacity so that we could slow down its usage until the next cycle. We used to have caps like 100 GB and subsequently around 300 GB before we finally got to the unlimited plans. I was surprised to find that we had used 2200 GB last month and have been averaging around 2000 GB each month for a year or more.
Here in Canada, internet services and infrastructure are still behind even the US. The US is no longer the benchmark for great internet and has been so for a long time now. But even compared to our southern neighbor our services suck. We are still stuck with 50 MBps DSL from our phone company and find that finally, the cable company is laying fiber that might allow 1 GBps access. So, I was looking at the options to switch. High-speed infrastructure is hugely lacking in North America per se.
On the mobile front, Canada is still behind. The lack of competition means that the oligopoly of old phone companies in Bell, Telus, and Rogers control the mobile phone market. We still don’t have unlimited mobile plans (though there are some pretend unlimited plans that cap the usage). In 2020, we have finally reached a reasonable price for 20 GB of data each month on our phones. We still do have reminders on our phones to make sure that we know when we are reaching our data caps, just in case we run over and be hit by exorbitant overages.
How much are you dependent on your internet? And, how much thought do you give to these basic amenities that we take for granted today?