Amazingly, those are advertised as "included amenities", as if they were a good thing. I'm sure a large number of people are fine with the idea of a managed internet - or they just don't understand.
Get a mobile hotspot. I've been using one (Verizon) practically as my only internet provider for a while now. 5G up and down speeds are totally acceptable for everything I do. And there's nothing an apartment complex can do about it. You can also share your phone's internet with other devices. Obviously the real answer is to not live there! But if you must, it's not an internet death sentence.
Do they block individual wired connections too, or only Wi-Fi?
Asking residents to refrain from setting up their own wireless access points actually seems like it could be reasonable? It might lead to less congestion and better performance for everyone.
I'm reminded of my college dorm. Every room had an ethernet jack, and there was a communal Wi-Fi network, but students were asked to not create their own Wi-Fi hotspots.
This is even a problem in neighborhoods where the townhouses are pretty close to each other. I was in one and there were fifty hot spots that were visible.
Amazingly, those are advertised as "included amenities", as if they were a good thing. I'm sure a large number of people are fine with the idea of a managed internet - or they just don't understand.
They often make you pay for Cable TV as well as part of the managed amenities, whether you want it or not.
Rev sharing agreements can be quite lucrative for the building owner.
Here's an old example https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/432/topics/554933-cable...
Get a mobile hotspot. I've been using one (Verizon) practically as my only internet provider for a while now. 5G up and down speeds are totally acceptable for everything I do. And there's nothing an apartment complex can do about it. You can also share your phone's internet with other devices. Obviously the real answer is to not live there! But if you must, it's not an internet death sentence.
Honestly, what's stopping a high rise building from doing an internal GPON/XGS-PON distribution to all the buildings inside?
Do they block individual wired connections too, or only Wi-Fi?
Asking residents to refrain from setting up their own wireless access points actually seems like it could be reasonable? It might lead to less congestion and better performance for everyone.
I'm reminded of my college dorm. Every room had an ethernet jack, and there was a communal Wi-Fi network, but students were asked to not create their own Wi-Fi hotspots.
This is even a problem in neighborhoods where the townhouses are pretty close to each other. I was in one and there were fifty hot spots that were visible.
Yes because inevitably a student would plug their Ethernet jack into the LAN ports and start serving bad DHCP to the rest of the dorm.
Starlink or 5g att/tmobile are a likely option