Mastodawn

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date = '2025-10-17T07:39:45-03:00'
draft = true
title = 'Fifteenth Post Intermittent internet & GSM access'
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GSM and 5G data

We often take for granted the access we have to data & VOIP networks, esp. when we have 'unlimited access'

Unlimited data access is a farce

My ISP still delivers ancient xDSL connections maxed a 10MBit/s (1MBit = 1024kBit!)
The connection is capped at speed meaning 30days per bandwidth pool
* 10MBit/s = 36000Mbit/hr
* 36000Mbit/hr = 36864000 MBit/day (x24)
* 36864000MBit/day = 1105920000 MBit/month (x 30 days)
* 1105920000MBit /1024 = 1080000 MByte/month
* 1080000MByte /1024 = 1054.6875 GByte/month
* 1054.6875 /1024 = 1.02996826172 TByte theoretical bandwidth.

You get only 1.0299 TByte/month at max!

Subtract from that number 10% for protocol overhead ping delays retries and what not.

The practical cap is at 949.15GB per month

Similar calculations can be made for unlimited post paid POTS phone connections

The cap is at time. No one talks 24hrs and can pay the phone bill, so the cap is also economical
No unlimited services exist. All are capped by time*
Subscriptions can be a way out to good deals
One of my GSM providers gives 100 minute prepaid subsciptions for 6 months a year and two years
The difference is startling in comparision with the regular price
100min = 4.5 USD per month subscribed prepaid 6 months
100min = 25 USD month prepaid!

Don't take your connections for granted.

Many people (me included) drop permanent services due to economical & technical reasons
* I dropped my xDSL connection because I need fibre connections to work. My ISP has the fibre optic cables & FAT terminals (fibre acces terminals) in the first part of the street.
* * My ISP even made the power company change the poles in the whole street
* * The EBS changed the poles in 40% of the project time, a record for them.
* * My ISP betrayed us by still giving us FTTC instead of FTTH as promised in the whole street.
* * My ISP has massive corruption problems, since they abused the grand for FTTH to give us obsolete FTTC equipment with xDSL
* * Only areas without POTS cables got FTTH first, the rest was shoved on obsolete ancient FTTC equipment you cant buy new anymore globally
* * The ISP makes double money since they cant charge more for FTTC minimal, but have to give 50MBit/s minimal because there are no lower caps allowed in the contract grand
* * The FTTH connection als0 gets your POTS phone connected to it
* * when a pole is ripped off due to a car hitting it, you are SOL without a seperate GSM / smart phone, because your POTS phone is now on a SPF (single point of failure).
- * On xDSL the lines are buried so POTS lines are safer
- I also dropped the xDSL service because the ammount of data I can download is pitiful on xDSL
- I can use the cash literally for food since they charge a massive USD 20/month for the ancient connection