Hakoda said:
it usually depends on who provides your Internet, usually called ISPs (Internet Service Providers). ISPs have a lot of customers and they can't just give out bandwidth willy nilly, they have to allot certain amounts to some users and bigger amounts to other users. This is usually how the cost of Internet bill is determined, pay more = more bandwidth = more download speed.
No offense, but that's all bullshit rhetoric spewed from the telco's and cableco's.
Had the Telecoms done what they were supposed to do, we would have had nation wide door-to-door fiber (that means fiber optic running to the pole outside your house, at the VERY minimum, if not a connection to your house and NOT just a fiber backbone) back in 2000 or 20002. In return for doing this, the telco's got BILLIONS of dollars in tax breaks, however they never delivered on this and haven't paid back a single cent.
The amount of copper line in this country (the US) is sickening and a testament to how far we've fallen behind the rest of the world when it comes to technology. Where we once were an innovator and leader, we're now struggling with antiquated infrastructures across the whole board: trains/transport, roads, telephone, tv, POWER -- this was made a huge point about 2 years ago, when they found that a massive portion of the power grid in the western/south-western part of the country could be knocked out if a certain point was 'hit' in an attack or had a failure.
While what you said is true, there ARE limits and more people need more bandwidth, the real reason for poor speeds isn't the number of users it's the greedy and cheap companies who don't want to invest in upgrading their infrastructure and would rather increase prices and decrease service quality, especially when in many areas there is a monopoly on anything better than DSL.
