The end of physical media & dedicated hardware: Inevitable?

[bmoc]

Still using a 4G LTE phone at home for internet here. Hotspotting my phone is technically against the terms of use so I am praying that I don't get caught. I've been doing it over a year now.

I got an estimate from the local power company on what it would cost to get fiber to my house. Being a mere 1.5 miles away from one of their current fiber runs will cost me about $65,000.

The local cable company went down my road last summer and laid down fiber for their cable internet. They stopped two houses away from me. I've been getting the run around from them ever since to get them to come the rest of the way. I even met the cable company guy in charge of new fiber runs due to my job and mentioned all this to him. He told me that I would be able to get their cable internet within 30 days. That was 4 months ago... There is a reason we are going to stop doing business with them.

Downloading patches for my consoles and computer take up enough bandwidth as is and the traffic does get throttled after a while. I'm not going fully digital any time soon.

Anybody want to start a 5G internet business here? You would make some serious bank if you did.

[marurun]

WoW really is the best.

I can't help but wonder if they're publicly traded. Maybe it's a smart time to invest.

Except that franchise agreements make it REALLY hard to break into new markets. And it's also expensive to run cable and sort out pole rights and right-of-way. I mean, it obviously hasn't stopped WoW cable, but their expansion is probably going to be slow and cautious and really dependent upon population density and local government receptiveness.

[BoneSnapDeez]

I thought you guys were talking about World of Warcraft.