4 ms·
I realise that Hong Kong is much smaller than the average country, but is there really any excuse why major city centres in the western world can't match this,
by swombat 17y ago
I realise that Hong Kong is much smaller than the average country, but is there really any excuse why major city centres in the western world can't match this, other than generalised incompetence?
- jacquesm 17y agoSure: profits. If you can sell your users the old stuff at inflated prices why bother to upgrade. An area where I lived could not get broadband internet at all, only dial up at a ridiculous per minute rate. Then some local entrepreneurial type put in high speed wi-fi with a long distance link to a better connected place. Within weeks suddenly all those old lines could run at dsl speeds, something that before had been 'theoretically impossible, and very expensive to remedy'. Telcos hate competition.
- potatolicious 17y agoYes, government-granted monopolies. This going beyond things like spectrum regulation, but also to exclusivity deals that municipalities sign with various providers. In Asia this just doesn't happen. When your customers need to be online, and there's no one else but you that offers service, you can sell them whatever the hell you want. We have loud outcries about Goldman Sachs and other sorts of corporate shenanigans, yet we make no noise when our city governments blatantly jump in bed (publicly admitted as such!) with telecoms.
- anigbrowl 17y agoOK well obviously we'd prefer to avoid 10 different companies digging up the street to put in their own cables (and I'm sure they'd rather not have to do that either), so how does the competition manifest in practice?
- jacquesm 17y agoThe usual way is by 'right of way' on a competitors infrastructure for a minimum fee.
- jacquesm 17y agoIt hasn't got anything to do with spectrum regulation at all, since these are land lines and spectrum issues deal with mobile usage.
- dualogy 17y agoTo be fair, he said "going way beyond spectrum".