5 ms·

$240 per month for internet, wow. I didn't realise things were that expensive for people living in remote areas. I'm currently paying ~$40 (converted from EUR)

$240 per month for internet, wow. I didn't realise things were that expensive for people living in remote areas. I'm currently paying ~$40 (converted from EUR) per month for a 100Mb/s fiber connection.

adventured 5y ago
That's because it's not. The cost isn't $240 by necessity. They're knowingly overpaying for Internet access (they have multiple connections, they're not even using Starlink for example). I'm paying $34 / month in a small city in the middle of nowhere for 200mbps in the US.
- geerlingguy 5y ago
  $140/month to get the most upload bandwidth possible at my house (35 Mbps through Spectrum). Then $99/month for Starlink (for now, at least). Meanwhile a few blocks away a friend has 500 Mbps symmetric access for $50/month.
  - iptrans 5y ago
    Time to build a wireless link to your friend :)
    - anderspitman 5y ago
      Seriously though this is achievable with consumer hardware[0], as long as you have line-of-sight or close enough to it. [0]: https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-300Mbps-dual-polarized-directional-CPE510/dp/B00N2RO63U https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-300Mbps-dual-polarized-direct...
      - BenjiWiebe 5y ago
        And check out Ubiquiti and Mikrotik for more hardware that does this sort of thing.
        anderspitman 5y ago
        Yeah most of my experience is from Ubiquiti and Mikrotik about 10 years ago. I was going to recommend Ubiquiti but it looks like the bar (and price) is even lower now.
    - karmanyaahm 5y ago
      @geerlingguy that would be a great video idea if possible
  - mattl 5y ago
    How is 5G or LTE service in your area?
sschueller 5y ago
CHF 64.75 (~71 USD) per month for 25 gbit synchronous [1] here in Zürich, Switzerland. The cost now is hardware. The Fiber infrastructure in the city is mostly operated by the state electrical company. Anyone can provide service over it. [1] https://www.init7.net/en/ https://www.init7.net/en/ [2] https://www.speedtest.net/result/c/df4123cf-5f0e-40f2-bf71-f8df85b4a03d https://www.speedtest.net/result/c/df4123cf-5f0e-40f2-bf71-f...
- lsaferite 5y ago
  25Gb ?! Symmetric? Wow. I guess that's a benefit to a small relatively wealthy country? My question would be, what do you have to even _use_ that much bandwidth? I have 1Gb/50Mb asymmetric and my Ubiquiti router can't really saturate the down stream. Sure, I could invest in a more powerful router, but in normal daily use we never even get close to max bandwidth.
  - sschueller 5y ago
    It's only the city and places that got lucky enough to have been connected via Fiber by the state owned phone company. There are still areas with garbage connections at a high cost. The reason the city has such a good fiber connectivity is because of a vote a few years ago that pushed this. It cost a lot of money but was worth every bit IMO. I hope something like this gets pushed for the whole country. I see it as core infrastructure like electricity and unlike cable or copper it is way more future proof.
tylerscott 5y ago
We pay 180 USD a month for a phone line and DSL from Century Link. This connection is 1.5 mbps down and 500 kbps up in practice (advertised speeds are higher). Starlink has been a game changer for us.
- spaniard89277 5y ago
  > 180 USD Damn... hope your wages make up for this man.
  - geerlingguy 5y ago
    It's crazy, in a lot of rural areas ISPs know they can charge the moon for terrible service and they justify it by saying how hard it is to service remote locations... at least for some 4G is a new alternative that is more readily available than Starlink.
shagie 5y ago
https://broadbandnow.com/national-broadband-map https://broadbandnow.com/national-broadband-map is informative. Select max speed and then go zoom in somewhere rural and see "1Mbps to 25Mbps" and then switch over to min price or provider counts... There aren't a lot of options in rural areas and running wire to the spot is expensive.

adventured 5y ago

That's because it's not. The cost isn't $240 by necessity. They're knowingly overpaying for Internet access (they have multiple connections, they're not even using Starlink for example). I'm paying $34 / month in a small city in the middle of nowhere for 200mbps in the US.

geerlingguy 5y ago
$140/month to get the most upload bandwidth possible at my house (35 Mbps through Spectrum). Then $99/month for Starlink (for now, at least). Meanwhile a few blocks away a friend has 500 Mbps symmetric access for $50/month.
- iptrans 5y ago
  Time to build a wireless link to your friend :)
  - anderspitman 5y ago
    Seriously though this is achievable with consumer hardware[0], as long as you have line-of-sight or close enough to it. [0]: https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-300Mbps-dual-polarized-directional-CPE510/dp/B00N2RO63U https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-300Mbps-dual-polarized-direct...
    - BenjiWiebe 5y ago
      And check out Ubiquiti and Mikrotik for more hardware that does this sort of thing.
      - anderspitman 5y ago
        Yeah most of my experience is from Ubiquiti and Mikrotik about 10 years ago. I was going to recommend Ubiquiti but it looks like the bar (and price) is even lower now.
  - karmanyaahm 5y ago
    @geerlingguy that would be a great video idea if possible
- mattl 5y ago
  How is 5G or LTE service in your area?

sschueller 5y ago

CHF 64.75 (~71 USD) per month for 25 gbit synchronous [1] here in Zürich, Switzerland. The cost now is hardware. The Fiber infrastructure in the city is mostly operated by the state electrical company. Anyone can provide service over it. [1] https://www.init7.net/en/ https://www.init7.net/en/ [2] https://www.speedtest.net/result/c/df4123cf-5f0e-40f2-bf71-f8df85b4a03d https://www.speedtest.net/result/c/df4123cf-5f0e-40f2-bf71-f...

lsaferite 5y ago
25Gb ?! Symmetric? Wow. I guess that's a benefit to a small relatively wealthy country? My question would be, what do you have to even _use_ that much bandwidth? I have 1Gb/50Mb asymmetric and my Ubiquiti router can't really saturate the down stream. Sure, I could invest in a more powerful router, but in normal daily use we never even get close to max bandwidth.
- sschueller 5y ago
  It's only the city and places that got lucky enough to have been connected via Fiber by the state owned phone company. There are still areas with garbage connections at a high cost. The reason the city has such a good fiber connectivity is because of a vote a few years ago that pushed this. It cost a lot of money but was worth every bit IMO. I hope something like this gets pushed for the whole country. I see it as core infrastructure like electricity and unlike cable or copper it is way more future proof.

tylerscott 5y ago

We pay 180 USD a month for a phone line and DSL from Century Link. This connection is 1.5 mbps down and 500 kbps up in practice (advertised speeds are higher). Starlink has been a game changer for us.

spaniard89277 5y ago
> 180 USD Damn... hope your wages make up for this man.
- geerlingguy 5y ago
  It's crazy, in a lot of rural areas ISPs know they can charge the moon for terrible service and they justify it by saying how hard it is to service remote locations... at least for some 4G is a new alternative that is more readily available than Starlink.

shagie 5y ago

https://broadbandnow.com/national-broadband-map https://broadbandnow.com/national-broadband-map is informative. Select max speed and then go zoom in somewhere rural and see "1Mbps to 25Mbps" and then switch over to min price or provider counts... There aren't a lot of options in rural areas and running wire to the spot is expensive.