But here is an example of smart network management as well. The provider is giving you an uncapped connection (or at least a connection with an extremely high cap), providing full speed to local servers, and then rate capping connections to 20Mbps temporarilly due to the lack of transport capacity which of course will be increasing as the networks expand. That is the cheapest and most generous way of getting an Internet connection as 20Mbps is still a lot of bandwidth for one to use, not to mention a lot of sites still cap download bandwidth at 4-5Mbps. Heck at the moment 20Mbps/20Mbps service for $35 is a pipe dream for me, more or less 100Mbps/100Mbps service. Now, if a provider starts to do this in my area, they had better get local peering set up as the current ISPs in my area unless you’re paying an arm and a leg for the bandwidth all send your data out to other networks 350 miles away to get to servers in my area.

Paxio OTOH offers 20 Mbps symmetric service in the US for under $50, 100 Mbps for under $100 and a gigabit for under $250. These speeds are symmetric, aren’t geographically capped and are available in the US from a for-profit business.

Or take LUSFiber. Granted, you’re talking about a utility service rather than a for-profit business, but when it comes down to it LUSFiber is the thing to beat today in terms of internet bang for the buck. 50 Mbps symmetric is available for $58 per month, and that’s to the internet. Local network connectivity is 100 Mbps no matter what tier you get (the 30 Mbps $45 tier, for example).