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Comment by post_break | Hacker News Reader

People like him are the reason we're seeing unlimited disappear.

Unlimited should disappear, it's a lie and it prevents honest comparisons of internet providers. If Verizon set a limit of 5 TB per month for residential customers, I think very few people would be complaining. They won't do it, because it would make LTE look like a really bad deal.

Why does unlimited prevent honest comparisons?

I'd argue that unlimited makes "honest" comparisons more convenient: compare the bandwidths and you're done!

The alternative is to compare bandwidth x1 and limit y1 against bandwidth x2 and limit y2, which I find more difficult.

> People like him are the reason we're seeing unlimited disappear.

Umm, it was never here to begin with.

Because he thinks the unlimited service is unlimited?

Tragedy of the Commons. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons )

If enough people use the internet like he was, then we have a problem and can't sustain it. For most people at this exact and present time, < 50Tb/m is "functionally unlimited".

This isn't tragedy of the commons; it's false advertising. No one should be advertising unlimited Internet, as there is no such thing, never has been, and probably never will be. But bandwidth providers want to suck people in and claim they have to offer unlimited Internet to compete.

Context of the argument. "post_break" was complaining that people like this were the reason that unlimited internet was going away. "jpdoctor" asked why, postulating that it's because someone actually believed them, to which I responded that people abusing the commons (the common pool of bandwidth) is why offering unlimited may go away.

And you certainly can deliver "unlimited internet" where unlimited = max_speed_per_second * 60 * 60 * 24 * 31 + 1 Because that is "unlimited" relative the max throughput.

FIOS means fiber optic which means the speed of light. Recent breakthroughs allow multiple signals down one fiber cable, which means multiple times the speed of light.

Yes, the fault for slow service in the US, as compared to the rest of the world, is people like this guy - not that the local telco and local cable company have a monopoly over the local loop and are usually one of the biggest, if not the biggest contributors to state (and federal) government campaigns.

Multiple times the speed of light? I think you're confusing speed with capacity.

I have a two-lane country road with a car going the speed limit. Now replace that with an eight-lane freeway with the same speed limit, and put a car in each lane driving at that speed.

Are we now driving at four times the speed limit? Each car takes just as long to get to its destination.

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