this post was submitted on 26 Sep 2023
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Plenty of people had broadband, I was one of the first to get it in 1998. A whole 512Kbit.
In 1999, I had a 25mbps asymmetrical static IP for $25/month from a new technology called a cable modem. It rocked. I could download faster than the local school/college that was still using T1 lines.
They clamped down hard on upload speed when torrents became popular. If I recall, my IP was 72.45.27.220 back then. I ran websites, file servers, streamed my music library, and used QuickTime broadcaster to stream TV/VHS so I could watch videos while in class.
No cable modems where I lived. I worked for an ISP and we'd order fire alarm circuits then just put SDSL routers on them instead. Up to 2Mbit speeds depending on how far from the exchange you lived, I was only able to get 512Kbit reliably. We were selling them to customers at a nice markup for a profit.
British Telecom wised up to it a few years later when they started marketing ADSL themselves and started filtering our traffic, but for a few years it was a super cheap way to get broadband if you had the know how.