heffeque:

Sorry but... here's yet another example of how bad the telecommunications lack of competition is in the US. Even non-1st world countries have better speeds for less. And obviously almost any other 1st world country has much better speeds for less.

According to Forbes, this is absolute nonsense.

As an American academic living in Europe, I’m often surprised by the cavalier pronouncements that the EU has more choices, lower costs and faster speeds in broadband and therefore the U.S. should follow the European regulatory model. A number of respected studies show the opposite is true. For starters, consider the state of competition. Americans have greater choice of broadband technologies and speeds than nearly anywhere in the world, including in the EU. Networks capable of providing 100 Mbps speeds reach 85 percent of U.S. homes, whereas just over half of European homes can access speeds of 30 Mbps or greater. Seventy-four percent of Europeans rely on DSL technology – largely because Europe lacks competition among different broadband technologies – whereas only 34 percent of Americans do. Today, the U.S. has roughly twice the percentage of homes with access to advanced fiber-optic networks as does the EU. The U.S. also leads on wireless broadband. Only 26 percent of Europeans live in areas where they can get the faster wireless 4G LTE networks; 95 percent of Americans are not only covered but most can choose from multiple 4G LTE providers. full article here

nicugoalkeper:

I don't agree with you 100% i don't think that only the lack of competion is the problem. I think that the people to because they pay a large amount of money for low speeds ! See my country Romania, we pay max 10 US dolars for: Romania - Romania (distance 400 km): http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/5738514810 Romania - UK: http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/5738517746 But we don't use DOCSIS. Still in our country we have a provider that uses DOCSIS and has ok speeds: D:469.11 Mb/s U: 25.33 Mb/s FOR like 12 US dolars.

There are a few reasons why Romania's internet speeds rival those in Japan and South Korea, while making the rest of Europe and North America seem slow in comparison. For one, there are a lot fewer people online in Romania. The internet penetration rate is just 50 percent in Romania, according to the International Telecommunications Union (the UN's information and communications agency), while the US penetration rate is more than 80 percent. And since Romania has a population of about 19 million and a land mass about the size of Oregon, it makes it a lot easier to deliver super high speeds.

After 10 years of a 16.5/1 ADSL+1 I upgraded finally to a 216/21.6 VDSL (....yes I know! But I am very near to the cabinet, so VDSL is fine for me...)... I will have to wait other 10-15 years to get a FTTH connection .-. At least in my country all - or at least quiet all - "broadband" connections do not have data caps.. As for 10Gb modems... I would be more happy to see 10Gbit networks cards in new every desktop and laptops first...

Andrew LB:

There are a few reasons why Romania's internet speeds rival those in Japan and South Korea, while making the rest of Europe and North America seem slow in comparison. For one, there are a lot fewer people online in Romania. The internet penetration rate is just 50 percent in Romania, according to the International Telecommunications Union (the UN's information and communications agency), while the US penetration rate is more than 80 percent. And since Romania has a population of about 19 million and a land mass about the size of Oregon, it makes it a lot easier to deliver super high speeds.

That's kind of a myth. Romania has insanely fast speeds because their telecommunications sector was NOT overly regulated by the state from the get go the way it is/was in most countries. Ironically, there's an awesome video I frequently link about this precise topic, because I really wish people would learn the economic lessons behind it. Another important tidbit is that it makes no sense to compare the ENTIRE country of the United States to a small country like Romania(for internet speeds or quite literally any other statistic). It makes a lot more sense to compare individual states, for example. And if you look at certain cities in the US, we actually have a couple that land in the top 10 for internet speeds if I remember correctly. [youtube=cAStVnqD53U] As far as the United States, people very badly exaggerate when describing how bad it is. It IS true that most cable MSO's have been given monopoly protection by the state, and the reality is that when you're given a government monopoly you simply aren't motivated to provide the best service for the best price, or even to innovate as intensely as you would otherwise. Despite this, the internet infrastructure in the United States has improved dramatically and the offerings that most people have are quite good. It's true that if you live way out in the sticks you aren't going to get the best service for a good price, but why would you expect to? If you live an hour from town that also means you typically don't have access to cheap groceries; that's the reality of living in a rural area. In my old hometown(a relatively small part of upstate NY) Charter is now offering 60/5 for $64.99 retail, although this is being upgraded to 100/10 for the same price(promo rates are generally not worth talking about, rack rate is more important). Anyway, 100/10 for 64.99 a month really isn't THAT bad. Where I live now in Boulder, CO the rack rate for my 100/5 connection is 79.95. Worse than the podunk town I came from, which is ironic since Boulder is a tech mecca. But, that's the reality of having a state protected monopoly. Actually, Century link has been advertising to me lately and they're offering 60mbps down for $45 and that price is locked in for life unless you change the plan. Even that really isn't that bad, 60 mbps is enough to support 2-3 4k streams simultaneously after all. To be honest the shittiest thing by far about my current provider is the 1TB data cap, which is not that difficult to hit if you consume media over the internet through netflix or OTT services.

Andrew LB:

According to Forbes, this is absolute nonsense.

No offense, but that's of exceptionally little comfort to anyone, save Forbes. Every larger country has lots of places with poor net connection availability and high prices. Just like every country has the urban areas where most people live and where one can choose from a number of offers because it's actually financially plausible for ISPs to build the infrastructure there. So, if you talk about whole countries, let alone continents, it's meaningless for anything but statistics. Two countries can't be compared unless their size, population, and degree of urbanisation are close to each other. I often see Americans complain about the prices of their net connections, but if the American makes twice the money a month compared to a denizen of some country with a seemingly cheaper net, then there's no difference. Except that the American still pays less for all the PC hardware...