4 ms·

single digit kbps is very common speed in some parts of the world, and you'd not think it's possible until you actually experience it personally. combine it wit

single digit kbps is very common speed in some parts of the world, and you'd not think it's possible until you actually experience it personally. combine it with trying to multitask by loading multiple pages in browser, where by you are basically trying to share those single digit speeds among multiple pages.

ghshephard 14y ago
I'm curious - what part of the world has single digit kbps links to the internet? I spent a month all over Brazil, and, while it was painful trying to work from some areas near Belem - it was either 80kbits+/second on GPRS or no connectivity whatsoever.
- cbs 14y ago
  I'm curious - what part of the world has single digit kbps links to the internet? Just off the top of my head, rural Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.
  - mosburger 14y ago
    Hey now - I live in Maine, I can't think of anywhere with single digit kbps internet! My in-laws live in the sticks, in a town w/ a population of 600, and even they have DSL.
    - amichal 14y ago
      ~10Kbps. Southern VT. 0.1 mile from a cable provider and 2 miles from 4G cell coverage. Live on the wrong road and you are out if luck. Solutions tried by people I know (all since 2005) * Satalite radio (helps with downlink but uplink is still via modem) * Pay $700/mo for 1.5mb commercial T1 (1.5MBps). Took the ISP 3 days to do the line engineering from the CO. * Long distance point to point wifi (@2.4GHz ~1mile and 800Mhz 10+ miles) * HAM radio packet networking. Slow but fun * Running 1/2 mile+ of Ethernet cable (with inline repeaters) through the woods and hoping no one messes with them * Combinationa of the above. Hisghspeed Internet access in rural/hilly areas is a major challange. We pay a few dollars every month on our phone bills as a special state tax to fund the ISPs to provide it. Have for years. still a problem.
- Isofarro 14y ago
  Its not about geography, it's about infrastructure. For a good couple of years visiting my parents in inland South Africa (just outside the major sprawl of the PWV), I was regularly seeing 1 to 2kbps speeds on dial up modem. South Africa only has one phone company, Telkom. The price of copper affects the quality of the telephone lines. We live in an area that's quickly growing, but the availability of copper is low. So there's shared telephone lines, which creates noise, which slows down modem connections. Yeah, they can string out more copper cables to work through the shared lines, but when those copper cables disappear as quickly as they are put up, it is very difficult to make progress. Copper theft in South Africa is big. And the shared telephone lines are deemed acceptable because Telkom support it only for telephone calls, not modem connections. They are reluctant to fix things that are not broken. So landlines are effectively useless in fast growing areas, there's not enough copper cable to go around to give people a decent clear line to a dial-up ISP, let alone broadband. I've moved my parents over to mobile broadband now, with a Mifi device that appeared on the market last year, so those download speeds are hopefully a thing of the past. Essentially, developing countries need to skip their subpar landlines and invest heavily in mobile broadband abilities. They can't afford the long term cost of replacing copper cables over and over and over.
  - Dylan16807 14y ago
    I can't help but wonder if they could avoid using copper. http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2011/09/23/british-telecoms-copper-cable-is-worth-more-than-british-telecom/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2011/09/23/british-t...

ghshephard 14y ago

I'm curious - what part of the world has single digit kbps links to the internet? I spent a month all over Brazil, and, while it was painful trying to work from some areas near Belem - it was either 80kbits+/second on GPRS or no connectivity whatsoever.

cbs 14y ago
I'm curious - what part of the world has single digit kbps links to the internet? Just off the top of my head, rural Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.
- mosburger 14y ago
  Hey now - I live in Maine, I can't think of anywhere with single digit kbps internet! My in-laws live in the sticks, in a town w/ a population of 600, and even they have DSL.
  - amichal 14y ago
    ~10Kbps. Southern VT. 0.1 mile from a cable provider and 2 miles from 4G cell coverage. Live on the wrong road and you are out if luck. Solutions tried by people I know (all since 2005) * Satalite radio (helps with downlink but uplink is still via modem) * Pay $700/mo for 1.5mb commercial T1 (1.5MBps). Took the ISP 3 days to do the line engineering from the CO. * Long distance point to point wifi (@2.4GHz ~1mile and 800Mhz 10+ miles) * HAM radio packet networking. Slow but fun * Running 1/2 mile+ of Ethernet cable (with inline repeaters) through the woods and hoping no one messes with them * Combinationa of the above. Hisghspeed Internet access in rural/hilly areas is a major challange. We pay a few dollars every month on our phone bills as a special state tax to fund the ISPs to provide it. Have for years. still a problem.
Isofarro 14y ago
Its not about geography, it's about infrastructure. For a good couple of years visiting my parents in inland South Africa (just outside the major sprawl of the PWV), I was regularly seeing 1 to 2kbps speeds on dial up modem. South Africa only has one phone company, Telkom. The price of copper affects the quality of the telephone lines. We live in an area that's quickly growing, but the availability of copper is low. So there's shared telephone lines, which creates noise, which slows down modem connections. Yeah, they can string out more copper cables to work through the shared lines, but when those copper cables disappear as quickly as they are put up, it is very difficult to make progress. Copper theft in South Africa is big. And the shared telephone lines are deemed acceptable because Telkom support it only for telephone calls, not modem connections. They are reluctant to fix things that are not broken. So landlines are effectively useless in fast growing areas, there's not enough copper cable to go around to give people a decent clear line to a dial-up ISP, let alone broadband. I've moved my parents over to mobile broadband now, with a Mifi device that appeared on the market last year, so those download speeds are hopefully a thing of the past. Essentially, developing countries need to skip their subpar landlines and invest heavily in mobile broadband abilities. They can't afford the long term cost of replacing copper cables over and over and over.
- Dylan16807 14y ago
  I can't help but wonder if they could avoid using copper. http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2011/09/23/british-telecoms-copper-cable-is-worth-more-than-british-telecom/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2011/09/23/british-t...