> There are three factors that determine the quality of your internet experience: 1) bandwidth, 2) latency, 3) packet loss. In practice, #3 is not usually an issue. But every ISP only advertises #1.
Fully in agreement. I've always hated that (outside of enterprise use) latency is never discussed - sure assuming a similar latency 1Mbps and 100Mbps is significantly different but 100Mbps and 10Gbps (except if you're shuttling files every so often) is already at the point of diminishing returns. Maybe there's a consumer use case that changes this in a few years, but everyone should focus on latency first. Unfortunately, there isn't much of a focus here - whether due to technical reasons or due to... ISP politics reasons (peering and transit fights are "fun" to watch, and is something that an average person is unaware of, even if they knew about corporate lobbying politics).
I think the reason it's not discussed by consumer ISPs is because the big guys are using a wide range of technologies, from DSL (yes, still) to cable to fiber. They don't want to talk about how their 200Mbps cable customers have significantly worse internet than their 200Mbps fiber customers. If they did that, they'd have to go deploying fiber into all the places that use other technologies.
Fully in agreement. I've always hated that (outside of enterprise use) latency is never discussed - sure assuming a similar latency 1Mbps and 100Mbps is significantly different but 100Mbps and 10Gbps (except if you're shuttling files every so often) is already at the point of diminishing returns. Maybe there's a consumer use case that changes this in a few years, but everyone should focus on latency first. Unfortunately, there isn't much of a focus here - whether due to technical reasons or due to... ISP politics reasons (peering and transit fights are "fun" to watch, and is something that an average person is unaware of, even if they knew about corporate lobbying politics).