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Good lord. In the UK I get 24Mbit DSL (giving me effectively ~12Mbit speeds) for about £8 per month after a rebate offer. Is it that expensive in the US due t
by AlisdairO 17y ago
Good lord. In the UK I get 24Mbit DSL (giving me effectively ~12Mbit speeds) for about £8 per month after a rebate offer. Is it that expensive in the US due to lack of competition, or just the sheer size of the areas you have to cover?
- teilo 17y agoDepends. Some areas have little competition. Telcos are being pushed to extend DSL to more and more rural areas, which adds a whole lot of cost for very little ROI, simply due to low population density. That drives costs up.
- dnsworks 17y agoTelcos actually make out like bandits on rural DSL, often getting 300-400% subsidies from the Universal Service Funds. I have a friend who has about 400 rural broadband subscribers and he said he charges $30/month, collects $150/month per customer from the USF, and was also given a $1,000 installation fee from the USF. He has long-since covered hist cost on installing a small DSLAM and running fiber out to that area.
- shpxnvz 17y agoIn my rural area Verizon stopped adding new DSLAM capacity shortly after rolling out service, and refuses to add more despite a deep waiting list of new customers. Instead, they are focusing on adding FiOS to areas which are already well-serviced by both DSL and cable, and trying to stop the county government from running it's own fiber. So, I pay $60 a month for a Sprint 3G connection thats run at about 1mbps for my home network.