Question Does reliable, low latency internet even exist? I miss early internet college T1 days... (also is it possible to 'combine' services?)

[Inquisition8]

Midwest dude here. About a year ago, after 10+ years with Spectrum/Charter/whatever other iterations it went through I switched from cable to 5G as Verizon started offering it in my area. It was good for a while, and generally I like it better than wire due to 'no' downtime. There have been problems with resets, but nothing like multiple hours of downtime or having to call a tech because someone cut a line somewhere. I really don't see myself going back to a cable setup ever again. The past few months though it's been degrading. The bouts of required resets have subsided (for now), but the intermittent latency is impossible. This is basically what feels like half the time ... early morning (traffic congestion), anything with high request/response load, nearly every weekend, and as a gamer who needs low latency (and in general, as I work from home and am frequently on meetings), I'm pulling my remaining hair out. I may be looking to try out Google Fi in my area (my understanding is they use T-Mobile towers), though I'm not sure if that will be any better. Another more expensive option is Starlink, which I would be ok with paying (I think it's like $120/month + $350 for gear), IF it means reasonable bandwidth and most importantly low latency. I'm just hoping to get some thoughts on network tech in general (I haven't tried fiber, but again I have some hesitation after many years of wired 'abuse'), in terms of possible options for a low latency setup. Money is not an issue (within reason).

Also, is it possible to 'combine' 2 providers simultaneously and have a router or something pick the better data option or even split packets for better latency? I could of course just pay for 2 services and have 2 networks running simultaneously and manually switch between them, I dunno I'm really scratching my head here on what I can do (if anything).

TIA

 

[lakedude]

Fiber

 

[Tech Junky]

VZW doesn't surprise me but, then again every home 5G ISP connection is Tier 2 compared to phone sims.

I went another route after having TMHI for a year or so and picked up m own 5G modem and got a phone sim instead.

SIM8380G-M2 - Wireless Joint

I get consistent speeds and unlimited data for under $40/mo now. On average double the DL speed the TMHI box provided and bumped the UL to 100mbps. If I were in a slightly different location I could push the DL speed further but, I'm too close tot he provider antennas.

Now, the only thing with this setup is I run my own router as a PC and don't need a hotspot/gateway device to get service.

 

[Thibsie]

Fiber

Just went from VDSL2 (50/30 more or less) to fiber (1000/500) (EU).
Changes life 😃

 

[Fallen Kell]

Wireless will always suffer from longer latency and high congestion issues during high demand hours of operation as it is a single shared spectrum used by all devices within the radio range. The radios always need to wait to communicate as only one device can transmit at a time over a given channel as if two devices attempt to transmit at the same time on the same channel, the resulting signal gets corrupted and is not readable and thus the radios need to go into collision recovery, where-in all radios stop broadcasting and then restart after random timeout periods. All of this leads to higher latency in areas that have a high number of users or high usage by the users on the network.