5 ms·

Yet another example of competition working out well for the consumer. Innovation, price drops, etc. Can you imagine a world where consumer broadband had the s

• pjmlp 13y ago
  > Can you imagine a world where consumer broadband had the same level of competition? Sigh...a nerd can dream... Yes, in most European countries. :)
  • hueving 13y ago
    Well that's disappointing then. I wasn't particularly impressed with the service I got at my various hosts' homes in the UK. Is it really the case that the last mile physical infrastructure is considered common there so any provider can use it?
    • matthewmacleod 13y ago
      Yes - the UK telephone network is regulated, and any provider can supply services over the formerly-public BT network. ADSL2+ is available up to ~20Mbps; there's also BT's Infinity, which I think is FTTC with VDSL - that's up to about 70Mbps. Virgin Media has a private cable network, which is great if you're not in an oversubscribed area - bandwidth up to 152Mbps is available for low cost. In general the situation is pretty good, with a pretty wide variety of options.
      • justincormack 13y ago
        Last mile fiber is not a free for all yet.
    • cmarschner 13y ago
      Yes but no only there. See http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local-loop_unbundling http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local-loop_unbundling
    • pjc50 13y ago
      The UK isn't really a "European" country in this regard; it still prefers inefficient private quasi-monopolies to properly functioning state services. The UK "last mile" infrastructure is unbundled so you can get your DSL service through a wide variety of providers - but actual line speed upgrades and faults are still at the mercy of BT incompetence, and everyone has to pay them £15/month for "line rental" even if you don't want POTS.
      • tonyedgecombe 13y ago
        "properly functioning state services" You obviously aren't old enough to remember when BT was part of the state owned post office. It wasn't great.
        • kolektiv 13y ago
          I'm old enough. I think that's why the parent qualified with "properly functioning"!
        • pjc50 13y ago
          That was a bit of a troll, yes; I'm just about old enough to remember six week lead times for phone lines, slam-door trains, but not quite the three-day week. My argument is that state services don't have to be awful, as a lot of people seem to think. It depends on local political culture. British culture has American pro-privatisation far more than the German/Nordic tradition of efficient services. Estonia is doing rather well at state-supported internet.
    • bananas 13y ago
      It's pretty good and yes that is how it works I'm a cheapskate and I get 12Mbit down and 1.5Mbits up with no traffic management and no limits and free phone services for £8/month.
      • duncans 13y ago
        Who's that with?
        • bananas 13y ago
          Sky. If you argue with them you'll get a good deal. I don't have Sky TV either. Edit: you need a provider that can afford to make a loss for the sake of customer retention. Sky is a primary example as their broadband is a tiny portion of their business.
    • sandstrom 13y ago
      I've got 100 mbit (upstream and downstream) for $38 / month. It's a single data point of course. I've seen broadband price comparisons across countries, but could not find one now. This one is for mobile broadband, so a bit of an apples to oranges comparison, but still: http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2013/10/daily-chart-5 http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2013/10/daily-c...
• pdq 13y ago
  Google is hopefully going to fill the fiber internet gap. It's interesting to see Time Warner and AT&T scramble to put out their own "gigabit" services, after Google announces coming to Austin.
• dewiz 13y ago
  Out of curiosity, which country/part of the world ? What is the average price and speed there ?
• venomsnake 13y ago
  It is called Eastern Europe - 100Mb/s for 20 euro a month with static IP and no traffic limits. Also we have right now large fiber to the home deployments.
  • deviltreh 13y ago
    100 mbps for 20 euros? That's quite a lot, for 28 euros I get 300 mbps outside of my country and gigabit inside.
    • ithkuil 13y ago
      Country or ISP network?
      • deviltreh 13y ago
        https://www.skynet.lt/ https://www.skynet.lt/ Lithuania
  • rplnt 13y ago
    I would call it Central Europe, but yeah. Fiber to home 6 years ago, now it's 250Mbit for 15EUR. And it's not sole company either. The cities I live(d) in (in Czech Republic/Slovakia) have multiple ISPs offering 100+Mbit services. Coverage is great as well (in cities).
  • higherpurpose 13y ago
    100 Mbps? Try 1 Gbit/s for 15 euro.
    • venomsnake 13y ago
      The problem I have not jumped to Gbit is that there is nothing to download ...