Is it me or are all things just on enshitification speed runs?
Seems like crack head level can't-wait! sort of twitchies from the 1%
For most things yes. Bandwidth seems to be highly dependent on location. Two and a half years ago I was paying Spectrum $85/month for 300 down and 20 up. The only way to get the bill lowered was to bundle more services or leave for a month and come back as a "new" customer. Problem is the only competition was T-mobile 5G service. And, my T-mobile signal at my house is not good.
Then AT&T ran fiber in my area and I got 500 mbps symmetric for $65. During the process of canceling Spectrum they said they could offer 500 symmetric for $50 over coax. I still declined on principle. then AT&T offered to upgrade my fiber to gig symmetric for just $5 a month more. So, $70/month total.
About 8 months ago Spectrum came back with an offer for 500 symmetric for $20/month. So I added them as a backup internet for my AT&T fiber. It has actually come in handy. Called AT&T earlier this week because I saw they were running some new customer promotions and wanted to see if they could do anything for existing customers. Got an additional $30/month off my bill for the next 24 months. So $40/month for gig fiber from AT&T plus $20/month for 500 symmetric from Spectrum as a backup.
My total internet bill is now cheaper with 2 providers for more bandwidth that just a couple of years ago. My 1990's teenage self could only dream of such a future. I'm also pretty sure this is cheaper in inflation adjusted dollars for internet than my parents paid in the late 90's for dialup when you factor in the second phone line with the metro calling plan so I could call ISPs without needing to rack up long distance charges.
