The notion that we are swimming in broadband choices, floated last week by Cringester B. D. in rebuttal to my snarky jibes about the phonecablopoly (tm), did not sit well with Cringesters who are sitting in the cheap seats at the great bandwidth banquet. Particularly in rural areas, where consumers typically get one choice (satellite) whose bandwidth limits cause their accounts to be routinely throttled. Cringem The notion that we are swimming in broadband choices, floated last week by Cringester B. D. in rebuttal to my snarky jibes about the phonecablopoly ™, did not sit well with Cringesters who are sitting in the cheap seats at the great bandwidth banquet. Particularly in rural areas, where consumers typically get one choice (satellite) whose bandwidth limits cause their accounts to be routinely throttled. Cringeman G. M. writes: I would like to make you aware of the fact that bandwidth throttling and total data sent/received is already a fact here in the wilds of Montana where we have ONLY satellite Internet available. It is written into the contract, which we get to sign or have no service at all. You see what happens when you have no competition. You high-speed DSL and cable guys have got it made (for a while anyway). Likewise, reader S. T. is also saddled with satellite: We live in the sticks and can only get Direcway (now HughesNet) satellite quote high-speed Internet un-quote. We are throttled at about 120 megs per 24 hours. If we download more than that we are slowed to what seems like slower than dial-up. They do give us a window of 3am to 6am EST to download all that we can. And online games are just about impossible with the very high ping range, since we bounce up and back down ~22k miles each way. Poster PDog says things aren’t all that much better in Eastern Mass: I seem to be one of the few respondents who live in a densely populated area, but who have few choices of any provider. ISP: Comcast or dial up. TV: broadcast or Comcast. Home phone service: you guessed it, Comcast or wired (the only truly reliable service anyway). Nobody offers DSL in my area – no loss – but Verizon has my town on its list for the next two dozen or so towns to be FiOSed. If I’m lucky it won’t be more than five years away. I do have a large choice of crappy wireless service companies, but the operative word here is crappy. So, B. D., wallow in your choices. I’m still waiting for some. Then there’s the throttling of a more selective sort. My unscientific yet impartial BuzzDash poll on whether Netizens would prefer a pørn-free Internet has so far reached what seems to be an obvious conclusion: no, they would not. Only 26 percent would go opt for a Net sans naughty bits; 56 percent oppose censorship, and the rest opted for “define pørnography.” In other words, one man or woman’s smut is another’s clothing optional entertainment. Somehow I suspect this poll will have no bearing on Sprint, Verizon, or Time Warner Cable, all of whom announced yesterday they’d reached an agreement with New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to block web sites and Usenet groups trafficking in kiddie pørn. No one in their right mind would argue for child pørnography. But my question is, if these sites are so easy for the ISPs to find and block, why aren’t the Feds breaking down their doors? Even if the site owners are operating out of some offshore pørn haven, surely they can get a little international cooperation from the local gendarmes. I suspect this is more of a political move than a practical one. But what’s clear is that the line dividing acceptable and censorable content just moved. The only question is where it will stop. Not to end on a total downer, I offer some hopeful news via reader M. K. in Colorado. Recently I signed up for Comcast Cable TV, having already subscribed to the phone and broadband service. While the guy on the other end of the phone was filling out the necessary form, he inquired as to how I liked my phone and Internet service. I replied that it was fine but that there was no way I was getting the 6mb/sec they advertised. He said “Oh”, I heard a mouse click and he replied “There you go”. Now I get 10-13 mb/sec. Go figure. What I figure is that Comcast is about to get a rash of calls from Cringesters hoping to hear the joyous sound of a fat pipe being cranked wide open. Good luck with that. Are you happy with the size of your pipe? (Hmmm, that didn’t come out quite the way I’d intended.) Post your tales of bandwidth triumph and tribulations or email me here: cringe (at) infoworld (dot) com. Swell swag comes to those who tip (and wait). Software DevelopmentSmall and Medium Business