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Also, let's face it. It's very difficult to reason about the interior of a building from pictures of its exterior. Who knows how nice these apartments are? I gr

Also, let's face it. It's very difficult to reason about the interior of a building from pictures of its exterior. Who knows how nice these apartments are? I grant that many of them are not probably up to the standards Americans are used to, but the mildew from the tropical climate and various other factors conspire to make things look worse than they are, I bet.

spacehunt 13y ago
And most of them have a choice of multiple ISPs offering 1Gbps FTTH for about US$20-40 a month...
- cmsmith 13y ago
  Of course they do. The cost to run fiber to a building is largely independent of the number of units in the building. So it makes perfect sense that higher housing density leads to lower costs and higher speeds.
  - EliRivers 13y ago
    Based on my experience living in a small town in England five minutes walk away from rolling, open fields, I suggest that what leads to lower costs and higher speeds is actual competition between broadband suppliers, rather than regulatory capture and cartels. I understand that it's common in the US for high-density housing areas to have very little choice, poor service, and to pay a fortune for their internet.
    - cmsmith 13y ago
      OK. As long as we're giving anecdotes, I live in high-density housing in the US, and pay $50 for 200 Mbps symmetric service. Service which is only available in buildings above a certain size.
- ddeck 13y ago
  Yes. But keep in mind that minimum wages is $3.75/hour with no paid breaks. Also, that's your connection speed to the ISP's network. As soon as your traffic leaves HK, you're more likely looking at < 10 Mbps
  - spacehunt 13y ago
    Nope, I get 100+ Mbps to at least Taiwan and Japan, according to speedtest.net.
    - ddeck 13y ago
      That's quite fast. I see ~10-12 Mbps to Taiwan/Japan from both home (200 Mbps fiber) and office (1 Gbps fiber). To the US, I see ~4-5 Mbps consistently. These are both via PCCW.
      - spacehunt 13y ago
        Weird, I'm also on PCCW. Results from tests I just performed, over Wifi though so not that accurate: - Japan: http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/2924783412 http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/2924783412 - US: http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/2924790093 http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/2924790093
hannibal5 13y ago
Many of those apartments are subdivided into smaller apartments. Entire family may live in just 40-square-foot apartment.
- eru 13y ago
  You don't mean 40 square meters?
  - spacehunt 13y ago
    hannibal5 might be referring to this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subdivided_flat http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subdivided_flat
  - bzbarsky 13y ago
    No, he means 40 square feet. As in about 4 square meters. Note that the average size of these arrangements, from spacehunt's link, is about 2.8 sq meters per person, so about 11m^2 for a 4-person family. And some are presumably below average.
ddeck 13y ago
There have been a number of photo exhibits showing exactly that. I assure you, things are worse than you imagine. http://petapixel.com/2013/02/19/cramped-apartments-in-hong-kong-shot-from-directly-above/ http://petapixel.com/2013/02/19/cramped-apartments-in-hong-k...

spacehunt 13y ago

And most of them have a choice of multiple ISPs offering 1Gbps FTTH for about US$20-40 a month...

cmsmith 13y ago
Of course they do. The cost to run fiber to a building is largely independent of the number of units in the building. So it makes perfect sense that higher housing density leads to lower costs and higher speeds.
- EliRivers 13y ago
  Based on my experience living in a small town in England five minutes walk away from rolling, open fields, I suggest that what leads to lower costs and higher speeds is actual competition between broadband suppliers, rather than regulatory capture and cartels. I understand that it's common in the US for high-density housing areas to have very little choice, poor service, and to pay a fortune for their internet.
  - cmsmith 13y ago
    OK. As long as we're giving anecdotes, I live in high-density housing in the US, and pay $50 for 200 Mbps symmetric service. Service which is only available in buildings above a certain size.
ddeck 13y ago
Yes. But keep in mind that minimum wages is $3.75/hour with no paid breaks. Also, that's your connection speed to the ISP's network. As soon as your traffic leaves HK, you're more likely looking at < 10 Mbps
- spacehunt 13y ago
  Nope, I get 100+ Mbps to at least Taiwan and Japan, according to speedtest.net.
  - ddeck 13y ago
    That's quite fast. I see ~10-12 Mbps to Taiwan/Japan from both home (200 Mbps fiber) and office (1 Gbps fiber). To the US, I see ~4-5 Mbps consistently. These are both via PCCW.
    - spacehunt 13y ago
      Weird, I'm also on PCCW. Results from tests I just performed, over Wifi though so not that accurate: - Japan: http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/2924783412 http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/2924783412 - US: http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/2924790093 http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/2924790093

hannibal5 13y ago

Many of those apartments are subdivided into smaller apartments. Entire family may live in just 40-square-foot apartment.

eru 13y ago
You don't mean 40 square meters?
- spacehunt 13y ago
  hannibal5 might be referring to this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subdivided_flat http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subdivided_flat
- bzbarsky 13y ago
  No, he means 40 square feet. As in about 4 square meters. Note that the average size of these arrangements, from spacehunt's link, is about 2.8 sq meters per person, so about 11m^2 for a 4-person family. And some are presumably below average.

ddeck 13y ago

There have been a number of photo exhibits showing exactly that. I assure you, things are worse than you imagine. http://petapixel.com/2013/02/19/cramped-apartments-in-hong-kong-shot-from-directly-above/ http://petapixel.com/2013/02/19/cramped-apartments-in-hong-k...