Why is broadband more expensive in the US?

[yoseipt]

in portugal i pay 24.99 uros for 100Mb conection, plus 60 tv channels, plus unlimited phone calls to landline and 9 other country's in europe landlines after 9pm.

Not bad at all!

 

PS: oh and theres no limit to the data u consume, and its also included acess to fon hotspots.

 

but i can understand your issues we had the same problem there until the government decided to invest in optic fiber. that made the companies compete, and our telecommunication regulator didnt allow the crappy up to xxMb connections. They need to specify the connection speed.

 

in my case i pay for 100Mb and its reaching me 125Mb but sadly only 7Mb upload 

[That Norwegian Guy]

In Alaska mta (or largest ip) makes me pay 80$ a month for 1.5 mpbs down and .25 mbps up and only 70gigs a month. you pay 1$ for every gig over

 

In Norway, if you are among the unlucky 3% of the population that only have access to satellite (I was for a time) you get the fantastic deal of a theoretical 2.5 mbps down and upload speeds of about Fed-Ex for $120 a month with an 8GB cap. Not even slightly exaggerating.

 

Thank god they are funding nationwide 100MBps (that's capital B)

[fishymamba]

We get 75/35 + T.V. for $130 right now with Verizon FIOS, not horrible but still kinda expensive. 

[Derangel]

Because of regional monopolies and ISPs are using their money to do other stuff other than upgrading infrastructure and improving prices. 

 

I'd love to move somewhere that has Gigabit Internet for around $50...like Japan...mmmmmmm.

 

This plus the entire new infrastructure of the US is, to put it mildly, completely fucked. We are a huge country with most of the population living on the coasts and the middle filled with mostly farm land. Last year the FCC did a study on what it would cost to update the US network and it was a pretty astronomical sum of money. Verzion gave up on FIOS due to the extreme cost and Google is moving slowly spending tens of millions per city. It has been estimated for Google to cover the entire country in fiber it would cost over $140 billion.

[atomicmonkey101]

Because telcom companies can and will get away with as much as I can

[MetEishYa]

see, its people like us who know the real pains on the internet. 

Yip, South Africa has the same problem, up to 2 mbps line for $70 a month the data usage is "unlimited" but they shape ur speed so much that its not much. Then theres the 40 mbps available to 0.009% of the country for a good value of $350 per month (Non-buisness line). We feel ur pain.

[tommy-b-10]

im on $70 a month for unlimited data, 10mb/s up, 1mb/s down....

 

You Americans cant complain!

[YouRezz]

Im quite happy with my internet connection (slovenia)

[jecho]

I think I am getting a good deal for my fiber 10up &10down for 35/month. What's nice though is that with fiber you don't get that fake performance of cable. It is a constant 10 at all times. Plus my pings are always great. Fiber is the gold standard. Honestly the average consumer doesn't need more than 10mb as long as it is fiber.

[chillxnate]

In reality, it's not THAT bad. I'm currently paying $55 for 30 down and 5 up. Not terrible. Fios is coming though, so that might be a game changer.

[PuNkPoEtS]

im on telstra broadband and i only get 30Mb/s down 1Mb/s up and thats claimed and a limit of 200GB a month and thats $100

 

 

gotta love the australian govenment when they say we dont need it as we dont even saturate the 30Mb/s

[JAKEBAB]

im on telstra broadband and i only get 30Mb/s down 1Mb/s up and thats claimed and a limit of 200GB a month and thats $100

 

 

gotta love the australian govenment when they say we dont need it as we dont even saturate the 30Mb/s

we dont saturate 30mb/s because majority of us cant get it i only get 17mb/s but getting nbn in december lucky me.

 

Ive been trying not to post on this thread as it has made me so angry but ive gone past it so many times i have to say something everyone has terrible internet all of the world besides those lucky few Asian and European countrys but seriously america should be the last country to complain about prices and speed!!!

[IAmSkip]

Meanwhile in Australia, I pay $90 a month for 150gb with 7mbps down and 0.3mbps upload, that includes line rental (which I have to pay for).

I have no other options for telcos and am stuck with this price. The previous Governments plans did not have me being upgraded within 3 years either (no ETA actually), so no matter what happens my internet sucks.

[Razarza]

I think I am getting a good deal for my fiber 10up &10down for 35/month. What's nice though is that with fiber you don't get that fake performance of cable. It is a constant 10 at all times. Plus my pings are always great. Fiber is the gold standard. Honestly the average consumer doesn't need more than 10mb as long as it is fiber.

Ok, the average house has what, 4 people? In 5 years when everyone has 4k displays and is comsuming 4k media 10 megabit will not be enough for that. And what happens when we get 8k, 12k and so on. There is never enough, we will always need more.

[jecho]

Ok, the average house has what, 4 people? In 5 years when everyone has 4k displays and is comsuming 4k media 10 megabit will not be enough for that. And what happens when we get 8k, 12k and so on. There is never enough, we will always need more.

Okay 4k might require you to have 20mb when it comes with new compression methods, but for me and my wife to have great service I am surprised the difference it makes to have fiber vs cable. Also it's not the same when the chance that all persons are watching 4k at the same time. What is the point of exceeding 4k anyways, at least with personal media consumption devices. "Retina displays" are all that is necessary unless you can see the pixels on my ipad. 8k is gimmicky unless you have a 50in TV.

[Wingingchase]

We pay such high prices because internet providers know we will pay for it

[ijKs Snow]

Well, there are more then one reasons why the cost of internet in U.S. is more then other countries.

 

1) Competition

2) Population Density

3) Closed Networks

4) Politics

 

Many people use the argument that countries in East Asia/Europe have higher population density that allows them get high speed internet for less then $30 a month. This is true to some degree, but it's not the whole picture.

 

Closed/Open networks are also a huge factor. For example, Verizon will never let AT&T use their networks and share lines. But, in countries like South Korea and Japan, you have no-name ISP companies using big name companies' lines because the government passed a law to allow it. One might wonder, why use some no name company when you can just use the big guys? Well, the no-name companies might provide you with services and freebies that the big boys don't. This in turn creates huge competition.

 

Also, politics plays a huge factor. Since the government in certain European/Asian countries had a plan to become wired, they pushed a plan to use taxpayer money to create better networks. This is why the government can pass the law to let small name companies use the networks.

 

These are some of the few reasons why the U.S. costs more then other countries. Although, U.S. companies can actually cut their internet costs by another 10-20%, they don't. Because they have a firm grasp of the market.

[Cryptonite]

 

I've always been amazed by the prices I've seen in the US for broadband, as Linus mentioned in last weeks WAN show the US is usually cheaper for a lot of things such as hardware due to lower taxes I find it crazy that something as everyday as broadband is so expensive.

 

Here's the latest BBC article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24528383

 

 

In the UK you can get online from anywhere for less than £20 a month, with some paying a lot less with calls included, nowhere near the £61 like in San Francisco.

 

Any Americans feel slightly ripped off?

 

expensive? you're just spoiled that's all.