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Depends. 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
by teilo 17y ago
Depends. 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.