1) The "backend cost" cannot be much more than what it is in Japan. They have to develop those networks as well. You make it sound like all the Japanese are act

1) The "backend cost" cannot be much more than what it is in Japan. They have to develop those networks as well. You make it sound like all the Japanese are actually accessing US servers. I would guess that the vast majority of the traffic is internal to the country. Yes, the distance is greater, but running "a few" high speed cables between the East and West coast is way cheaper than wiring a whole city. 2) You argue that you can't have one price for densely populated areas and another otherwise. In effect, this is exactly what it's happening, except that in those less dense areas you don't get service at all. Any way you slice it, you just can't add up the huge difference in what we're getting and what they're getting.