Oddbean new post about | logout
 There is no such thing as "unlimited" internet of any kind.  It is a mathematical impossibility - like "zero bandwidth transmitter".   Fiber has a high rate to the home, but you connect to the same routers and switches at the ISP office as when you have cable.  I actually prefer cable (unless your application truly requires Gbit or more over the internet) because fiber has a higher cost to install, longer MTTR (takes longer to repair), and shorter MTTF (fails more often).  

What is called "unlimited" means "unmetered" - you are charged a flat rate.  This causes many perverse incentives for both ISP and customer, which I won't go into here.  (Similar to an all-you-can-eat restaurant - which is never truly all you can eat and also has perverse incentives on both sides.)  The economic incentives are much saner when paying for actual bandwidth consumed.  A compromise is "tiered" plans, where you pay a flat rate for each capped tier, with an option to auto upgrade (if slowing down services is not an option).