We just had AT&T Fiber installed today, and it is glorious.

[bbhaag]

With two teenagers and a wife, we usually are around 1.3TB - 1.6TB of data usage per month. That's with my kids playing XBOX One games online, watching YouTube, and up until we switched, constant streaming of Playstation Vue, Netflix, or Prime Video.

We are in a similar situation. We don't have a cable sub just ota and streaming services. Between me my wife and our two sons we can can burn through the data.
One thing that constantly surprises me is my sons aversion to watching traditional television. Maybe it is there age group(15 and 10)but they have very little desire to watch television like my wife and I do. It's 99% Youtube and Twitch for them with some Netflix and Prime thrown in for good measure and of course the gaming.

 

[mnewsham]

Maybe it is there age group(15 and 10)but they have very little desire to watch television like my wife and I do. It's 99% Youtube and Twitch for them with some Netflix and Prime thrown in for good measure and of course the gaming.

As a 24 year old, no one I know my age particularly watches live TV, they'll watch it online somewhere streamed, or download the episode and watch it later if streaming isn't an option.

Several friends pay for hulu, or netflix, or HBO go, etc. But I don't know anyone still paying for cable TV.

 

[UsandThem]

We are in a similar situation. We don't have a cable sub just ota and streaming services. Between me my wife and our two sons we can can burn through the data.
One thing that constantly surprises me is my sons aversion to watching traditional television. Maybe it is there age group(15 and 10)but they have very little desire to watch television like my wife and I do. It's 99% Youtube and Twitch for them with some Netflix and Prime thrown in for good measure and of course the gaming.

My kids also rarely watch any TV. Our youngest teen (15) watches Walking Dead with us, and the older one (16), watches Stranger Things with us. The only show that we all watch together is Family Guy. The rest of the time, they mainly watch or create videos on YouTube.

Funny thing is if I watch an older show like say Seinfeld or Frasier, my teens will leave the room because they say they can't stand the laugh track that was put into those kind of shows.

 

[bbhaag]

My kids also rarely watch any TV. Our youngest teen (15) watches Walking Dead with us, and the older one (16), watches Stranger Things with us. The only show that we all watch together is Family Guy. The rest of the time, they mainly watch or create videos on YouTube.

Funny thing is if I watch an older show like say Seinfeld or Frasier, my teens will leave the room because they say they can't stand the laugh track that was put into those kind of shows.

To funny haha. I can see how that would be intolerable if you were not used to it. Some of those laugh tracks are just over the top. I'm a Star Trek fan and my 15yo says the same thing regarding the cheesiness when it comes to a lot of the episodes. He just leaves the room.haha

 

[VirtualLarry]

Hey, I'm in my 40s too... don't knock Frasier, kid, that's some quality television.

 

[UsandThem]

Hey, I'm in my 40s too... don't knock Frasier, kid, that's some quality television.

I know. Frasier has to be my #1 all-time sitcom show. I actually own the entire series, and every few years, I start with the pilot episode and work my way until the end.

Fun fact, Lisa Kudrow was originally going to be cast as Roz, and Frasier originally wasn't going to have a brother, but the producers felt like the show needed another family member, so Niles Crane was created. Finally, the role of Daphne was originally going to go to Rosie Perez.

Looking back, could you imagine the show without David Hyde Pierce, Peri Gilpin, and Jane Leeves?

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Just how much do you remember (i.e. how old are you)? Did you ever have a 300bps modem tied to text based Compuserve? I remember pulling in encyclopedia articles from them at 300bps and at that time, it was amazing.

I was 75476,112 on CompuServe and started in 1982 IIRC. I still have my original 300 baud VICmodem and the original box, documents, and cassette tape.

 

[Engineer]

I was 75476,112 on CompuServe and started in 1982 IIRC. I still have my original 300 baud VICmodem and the original box, documents, and cassette tape.

My Tandy 100 portable computer with 300 baud modem is long gone. I used it in 1984 to connect to CompuServe and use the encyclopedia (freshman year of high school). I too had the cassette tape (on the Tandy 100 as well as the Tandy CoCo II).

Edit: You're an old fart!!!

 

[QuietDad]

My Tandy 100 portable computer with 300 baud modem is long gone. I used it in 1984 to connect to CompuServe and use the encyclopedia (freshman year of high school). I too had the cassette tape (on the Tandy 100 as well as the Tandy CoCo II).

Edit: You're an old fart!!!

You forgot the 32 character by 16 line ASCII screen

 

[IndyColtsFan]

My Tandy 100 portable computer with 300 baud modem is long gone. I used it in 1984 to connect to CompuServe and use the encyclopedia (freshman year of high school). I too had the cassette tape (on the Tandy 100 as well as the Tandy CoCo II).

Edit: You're an old fart!!!

Yep, I'm now 47 years old. Holy crap, where did the years ago?

Anyway, I still have every single computer I ever owned before my "PC era" began in the 90s. I still have my original Vic 20, Commodore 64, Commodore 128, and Amiga 2000. I picked up an Amiga 3000 on amibay a few years ago as a restoration project, because I ALWAYS wanted that computer but as a poor college student, couldn't have one.

 

[boomerang]

@UsandThem, I'm curious how the TV distribution was done. Utilizing the existing coax runs? I know that with our installation the ONT will be mounted inside the home and that a standard router will be utilized but the TV, I don't know how they'll make that happen. If they use the existing coax there has to be an interface. I know we have different providers and that it might be done differently.

Our install is scheduled for the 10th of January and I'm just curious.

 

[UsandThem]

@UsandThem, I'm curious how the TV distribution was done. Utilizing the existing coax runs? I know that with our installation the ONT will be mounted inside the home and that a standard router will be utilized but the TV, I don't know how they'll make that happen. If they use the existing coax there has to be an interface. I know we have different providers and that it might be done differently.

Our install is scheduled for the 10th of January and I'm just curious.

It depends on what equipment they have at the time. The installer was going to use my existing coax cable running to my living room TV, but she didn't have a receiver/DVR box that had a coax connection in her truck.

So what happened for my install was they ran a new fiber cable from a box at the street to my house. She then ran it directly to my home office, to some type of white signal box she installed on the wall. From there she ran one CAT5 cable to the AT&T modem/router in my home office, and then she ran another CAT5 cable from the white box to my living room, which connected into the TV receiver/DVR.

 

[boomerang]

It depends on what equipment they have at the time. The installer was going to use my existing coax cable running to my living room TV, but she didn't have a receiver/DVR box that had a coax connection in her truck.

So what happened for my install was they ran a new fiber cable from a box at the street to my house. She then ran it directly to my home office, to some type of white signal box she installed on the wall. From there she ran one CAT5 cable to the AT&T modem/router in my home office, and then she ran another CAT5 cable from the white box to my living room, which connected into the TV receiver/DVR.

Thanks, that's interesting.

I may have found the ONT Summit will be using after doing a bunch of searching. It was a press release from four years ago but if they are still using the same one, it has an RF connector right on it.

http://www.coretelecom.net/media/pdf/iPhotonix iVolve Indoor CATV A10.pdf

This should be a simple install for them. They will only have to run fiber into the house to the ONT and if they place it where I want it, the rest of the connectors are right there. I have both coax and RJ45 connections too at each TV location so either way I will be covered.

Right now I'm wondering if Comcast expects this to be returned. Time will tell I guess.

 

[aigomorla]

Careful with ATT ...

Even tho you are unlimited, on the contract, it states that it is metered.
And they will not remove the words, because i know one day they will spank you and meter your glorious connection, at which point all that bandwith speed is moot if you have a limited amount of credits to spend on it.

This is why although i hate Spectrum with a Passion, i can download as much as i want, upload as much as i want, and use as much as i want, without worrying anything about data caps, or being slowed down after using #GB's each month.

 

[UsandThem]

Careful with ATT ...

Even tho you are unlimited, on the contract, it states that it is metered.
And they will not remove the words, because i know one day they will spank you and meter your glorious connection, at which point all that bandwith speed is moot if you have a limited amount of credits to spend on it.

This is why although i hate Spectrum with a Passion, i can download as much as i want, upload as much as i want, and use as much as i want, without worrying anything about data caps, or being slowed down after using #GB's each month.

I'll keep an eye on it. I just checked our usage, and with 15 days left in our billing cycle, we are at 710 GB of usage. Looking at my router, we usually averaged 1.2 - 1.5 TB per month. However, that was when we used Playstation Vue for our streaming TV service, so we should be quite of bit less going forward.

We actually were sitting around 330 GB until yesterday when we gave my oldest son an external hard drive since he had ran out of space on his Xbox One, and couldn't install anymore games. Apparently he did a lot of downloading and installing the last 2 days.

 

[country2]

We got (well, able to get I should say) Windstream fiber and its a whopping 10Mbs....one big joke and that's why we don't have it and still on their high speed internet of 6Mbs.You people don't know how envy I get sometimes when I see speeds over 20 posted.

 

[Chaotic42]

We got (well, able to get I should say) Windstream fiber and its a whopping 10Mbs....one big joke and that's why we don't have it and still on their high speed internet of 6Mbs.You people don't know how envy I get sometimes when I see speeds over 20 posted.

Where do you live? I've though about moving back out to the country and just not having internet.

 

[VirtualLarry]

and just not having internet.

I don't think that I could handle that. Internet to me is like air and water.


Even 1 or 3 Mbit/sec down, is better than nothing.

Even dial-up? (Wonder how that works these days, for web browsing. Maybe with Lynx.)

 

[country2]

Where do you live? I've though about moving back out to the country and just not having internet.

North East Georgia, in a little town called Homer where cows out number people... about 35 miles west of Gainesville

 

[mnewsham]

North East Georgia, in a little town called Homer where cows out number people... about 35 miles west of Gainesville

Weird, Windstream's website seems to indicate the slowest speed they offer there is 15mbps, and packages up to 100mbps.

You might want to give them a call to see what they can do. In some cases they're willing to provide you better speeds if you pay them for the cost to upgrade whatever equipment needs to be upgraded. It can get expensive depending on particulars, but it can also be cheaper than you might expect, again, depending on the particulars of your situation.

Hell, its not like running fiber is THAT expensive you could run a few miles of fiber for ~$5,000 if you're doing the labor yourself.

 

[Chaotic42]

North East Georgia, in a little town called Homer where cows out number people... about 35 miles west of Gainesville

Oooh, I bet there's some good bass fishing over there. I grew up on a watermelon farm in Mississippi and a big lake in Louisiana. I can deal with living in the suburbs, but I really just want to be in the woods.

 

[aigomorla]

North East Georgia, in a little town called Homer where cows out number people... about 35 miles west of Gainesville

cows outnumbering people is way better then cars out numbering people :T

Traffic in the city starts at like 2-3pm... and doesn't end until 9:30-10:00 *sigh*

 

[country2]

Weird, Windstream's website seems to indicate the slowest speed they offer there is 15mbps, and packages up to 100mbps.

You might want to give them a call to see what they can do. In some cases they're willing to provide you better speeds if you pay them for the cost to upgrade whatever equipment needs to be upgraded. It can get expensive depending on particulars, but it can also be cheaper than you might expect, again, depending on the particulars of your situation.

Hell, its not like running fiber is THAT expensive you could run a few miles of fiber for ~$5,000 if you're doing the labor yourself.

lol...I saw that also but also saw even after my street address was put in I got way lower speeds.May call them up again ans see.

 

[country2]

cows outnumbering people is way better then cars out numbering people :T

Traffic in the city starts at like 2-3pm... and doesn't end until 9:30-10:00 *sigh*

Nothing more exciting then rounding a curve at 4am and seeing a black cow in your lane!

 

[Hans Gruber]

Here is an interesting thought on encoding/bitstream/compression of HD/4K and any streaming service. People think of things like Blu-ray where the disks are 50GB and sometimes more. An old encoding standard well over 10 years old. CD's used to hold 650-700MB's and yes that was a lot of storage space during it's time until Mp3 came along storing a song from 3MB-10MB depending on encoding of track.

What I am saying is that services like Amazon Prime and Netflix are hard at work changing the compression and encoding of delivered content. People assume if a HD netflix film takes 5GB that if the same HD movie would take only 2GB that somehow the quality of picture or sound would be significantly reduced.

Both Amazon Prime and Netflix are software apps vs. hardware type media such as Blu-Ray that cannot change on the fly because it's a fixed standard introduced in the hardware standard of the platform.

Don't get me started on X1 from Comcast and the DVR having only 500GB of cloud storage when a gmail account has 5GB of storage for free. Even Comcast points out the compression they use for programming has greatly decreased DVR storage space. While at the same time their picture quality sucks compared to fiber like FIOS TV.

My point that compression of streaming programming evolves every month without the consumer realizing it. So maybe people won't have to worry as much about data caps.