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The regions in Europe which have cheaper/faster access have either community managed infra or high population density/cheap power. Does the US have that?
by xstartup 8y ago
The regions in Europe which have cheaper/faster access have either community managed infra or high population density/cheap power. Does the US have that?
- Fnoord 8y agoSwedes in say Stockholm have had quick internet access for ages but high population is a relative term. I am sure cities such as New York and Los Angelos are high population compared to Stockholm or cities in The Netherlands. Also, I wouldn't say we got so much choice here in NL. There's basically one cable company: Ziggo (aka Liberty Global, owned by an American) and basically one DSL company: KPN. You can't even always get both (meaning usually Ziggo has a monopoly), and KPN actively hampers fiber because VDSL2 is "viable". Mobile-wise there's traditionally 3 players, rest are MVNO. Now with 4G, the third player (T-Mobile) is actually the best and there's a fourth player as well (Tele2). And 4G has a relatively low latency (especially on T-Mo's network which I personally don't have though). The two big players are once again KPN and Vodafone (joint venture with Ziggo called VodafoneZiggo). Vodafone just bought Unitymedia in Germany and Eastern Europe from Liberty Global, btw. The problem is that a lot of the cable infrastructure (traditionally owned by the municipalities or small corporations) has been sold very cheap to companies which have all ended up being bought by Liberty Global. The government has done it completely wrong. They should've kept owning the networks, but leasing access to companies. After all, the government owns infrastructure such as roads and rails as well.