That’s not totally accurate. It was initially a symbiotic relationship. Linus was providing marketing for NCIX as well in the early days. That does not detract from the reality that LTT would be nothing without the early support of NCIX.

Honestly, it’s highly variable. Generally speaking, more populated areas tend to have much better options for internet and in some large markets even have a degree of competition.

In my case, I live in a town of only 180k or so people. At my home, I am able to get 1.2 gbps download from Comcast. They are the only option in my direct vicinity with this much bandwidth. The alernative is AT&T with only DSL as an option. I don’t remember the top tier. But, it’s considerably slower at maybe 100 mbps or something like that.