BBC asks: Why do Americans pay so much for broadband?

[Hamsteronfire]

I'm surprised at Estonia?
I thought Broadband in Estonia was excellent, what with it being the home of Skype and everyone owning a personal website or something?

[woidoi]

I wonder how the Netherlands fit into that chart.

[Novangel]

Where's Australia on that chart I wonder (Hint a lot of blue and no yellow)

[bravehat]

[QUOTE=Swilly;42674403]Because things here are generally more expensive is the short answer.[/QUOTE]

It's also the wrong answer.

[sir whoopsalot]

[QUOTE=The golden;42674903]Well you live in the Netherlands and have internet. You should know where you would go on that chart. :v:[/QUOTE]

Well, if my ISP is anything to go by, pretty good. We have TV, phone and 150/15 internet for 65 euros a month.

[DokVis]

[QUOTE=Protocol7;42674457]Comcast has had a 250GB data limit on their internet services, but last I checked they weren't enforcing it. I haven't checked recently, though. With 4 users in the home - two of which rely heavily on streaming services (Pandora, Netflix, etc), as well as Steam downloads by yours truly, we got pretty damn close to the limit more than a few times a year.[/QUOTE]

They don't at all, even when they said they did.

Here is mine
[IMG]http://puu.sh/51ZTx.png[/IMG]

[sloppy_joes]

[QUOTE=Swilly;42674403]Because things here are generally more expensive is the short answer.[/QUOTE]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

dude have you ever left the states?

[BrickInTheHead]

All of these reasons are wrong, it's because of our freedom

[editline]28th October 2013[/editline]

and our internet is actually a vast network of bald eagles

[snookypookums]

[QUOTE=Intoxicated Spy;42674979]They don't at all, even when they said they did.

Here is mine
[IMG]http://puu.sh/51ZTx.png[/IMG][/QUOTE]

Bloody hell, my FUP limit is 40 GB, which is like.... A tenth of yours. And I get speeds of only about 15 Mbps, too. I can bet you must be also getti a higher speed than that as well.

Goddamn Indian internet and their stupid FUP's

:suicide:

[sloppy_joes]

[QUOTE=Perfumly;42674597]It's probably more expensive because of the ridiculous infrastructure required for Internet in the US.
Things in the US are much more spread out, there's still places in the US where you can only get dial-up.

And in like half the country all you can get is DSL internet[/QUOTE]

Except Canada is cheaper than the states according to this.

[Pardalis]

They should also take into account data caps, which would leave Canada way worse than the US. Down here we get pretty crap plans (12/1.5 for $30/mo) but at least it's unlimited, and the higher-end plans with datacaps just reduce your speed when you go over them instead of charge you like a dollar a gig or some bullshit like that.

[Krakash]

Because the broader you are, the more expensive broadband is. Get wrekd murrica

[DokVis]

[QUOTE=snookypookums;42675049]Bloody hell, my FUP limit is 40 GB, which is like.... A tenth of yours. And I get speeds of only about 15 Mbps, too. I can bet you must be also getti a higher speed than that as well.

Goddamn Indian internet and their stupid FUP's

:suicide:[/QUOTE]

35Mbps

[Pardalis]

I couldn't live with [URL="http://www.rogers.com/web/link/hispeedBrowseFlowDefaultPlans"]this, [/URL]for example, holy christ. Who cares if you get 150mbps down if you only get 250GB a month?

[Protocol7]

[QUOTE=latin_geek;42675083]I couldn't live with [URL="http://www.rogers.com/web/link/hispeedBrowseFlowDefaultPlans"]this, [/URL]for example, holy christ. Who cares if you get 150mbps down if you only get 250GB a month?[/QUOTE]

The worst part about it all is 150Mb/s is only effectively ~20mega[I]bytes[/I] per second, and that's just the upper limit of what you pay for. You'd probably be lucky to get combined 10MB/s at best.

[sloppy_joes]

[QUOTE=latin_geek;42675083]I couldn't live with [URL="http://www.rogers.com/web/link/hispeedBrowseFlowDefaultPlans"]this, [/URL]for example, holy christ. Who cares if you get 150mbps down if you only get 250GB a month?[/QUOTE]

Canadian Internet is a fucking joke.

[editline]28th October 2013[/editline]

[QUOTE=Protocol7;42675100]The worst part about it all is 150Mb/s is only effectively ~20mega[I]bytes[/I] per second, and that's just the upper limit of what you pay for. You'd probably be lucky to get combined 10MB/s at best.[/QUOTE]

Not true, Rogers and Bell are actually decent with giving you the speed you pay for.

[FelixDragon]

[QUOTE=latin_geek;42675083]I couldn't live with [URL="http://www.rogers.com/web/link/hispeedBrowseFlowDefaultPlans"]this, [/URL]for example, holy christ. Who cares if you get 150mbps down if you only get 250GB a month?[/QUOTE]

I'm at $75/month for 50GB a month and 3mbps and I'm barely managing :c

[ironman17]

[QUOTE=Protocol7;42674374]Because the asshole companies that charge out the nose have a monopoly on the industry and there's fuck all we can do about it short of not paying for the services.[/QUOTE]
And what's worse is that there's usually a broadband limit. A LIMIT on BROADBAND. Of all the things in this dark horrifying universe, this is one of the scariest concepts, and needs to be forced back into the realms of sci-fi horror to fester in crappy novels.

[Cakebatyr]

[QUOTE=Tuskin;42674497]In Canada, or at least in Atlantic Canada not sure about the rest of the country, Bell internet has no Bandwidth Cap on any of their plans. We get 8MB/s for about 160 a month on FiberOP[/QUOTE]

Here I'm rural BC, Shaw offers "20Mb/s" which I have never seen go above 1MB/s. Theoretically we have data capssomewhere in the range of 450GB but the unofficial word is that since there is no higher package offered in my area they ignore the cap. Upload speeds are <50KB/s.

[Gordy H.]

I pay $70 a month for 100 mbp/s from Charter Communications here in northern Minnesota, with no data caps. I'm pretty happy with that.

[Venezuelan]

[QUOTE=sloppy_joes;42675050]Except Canada is cheaper than the states according to this.[/QUOTE]

I thought the majority of Canadians lived near the border and it's actually reasonably dense

[Midas22]

UK gets 60mbps

lmao

[Fate]

[QUOTE=Midas22;42675348]UK gets 60mbps

lmao[/QUOTE]
A lot of places do, just saying.

[Cabbage]

[QUOTE=SataniX;42675363]A lot of places do, just saying.[/QUOTE]

"a lot"

so.. city centres

[pr00ch]

In Poland you can get a capless 100 mb/s for 22 USD a month. Just for reference.

And from a different IP you can get 250 mb/s for 28 USD a month, also capless.

[garychencool]

[QUOTE=Coffee;42674416]America is stupidly cheap compared to Europe when it comes to most things.[/QUOTE]

Such as food

[sloppy_joes]

[QUOTE=Venezuelan;42675330]I thought the majority of Canadians lived near the border and it's actually reasonably dense[/QUOTE]

Most do but it's still not nearly as dense as the states. If you take the most densely populated part of Canada (Southern Ontario) and moved it to the states - it would only be the 13th most densely populated state. And that's the most densely populated part of the most populated province.

Bit of cherry picking but it gets my point across.

There are parts of Canada that are very densely populated, big cities such as Toronto and Vancouver, but the majority of it is undeveloped, even close to the border.

[Fate]

[QUOTE=Cabbage;42675402]"a lot"

so.. city centres[/QUOTE]

I'm in a small rural village, less than 500 people - I get BT Infinity, around 70-75.

[Sgman91]

[QUOTE=sloppy_joes;42675436]Most do but it's still not nearly as dense as the states. If you take the most densely populated part of Canada (Southern Ontario) and moved it to the states - it would only be the 13th most densely populated state. And that's the most densely populated part of the most populated province.

Bit of cherry picking but it gets my point across.

There are parts of Canada that are very densely populated, big cities such as Toronto and Vancouver, but the majority of it is undeveloped, even close to the border.[/QUOTE]

I'm pretty sure that's because the US just has a much higher population.

The vast majority of Canada has almost no one living there:

[url]http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2006/as-sa/97-550/vignettes/img/map-2006-pop-density-canada-sz01-en.gif[/url] (The image is massive and I don't know how to get it to display smaller)

While almost the entire US is populated:

[url]http://jaymans.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/71789-050-459169a6.gif[/url]

[Zephyrs]

The problem I always find with these blanket comparison stories is they do absolutely [i]nothing[/i] to distinguish between the demographics. The average US numbers are abysmal. You know why? Because someone living out in the middle of nowhere in the midwest frequently has troubles getting phone service. Because someone in the mountains in Vermont had to pay 30,000 dollars to get power.

If you only look at areas with relatively high population densities, like suburbs and actual cities, the US is amongst the best in the world. Sure it could be better, but it's still way up there in terms of bandwidth available. Costs are still higher than they are elsewhere, but we have raw bandwidth available.

It's just that we have a far larger percentage of people who can barely get anything, and they drive all the figures way off. Any article that doesn't try and split things down into at least a couple groups for comparison isn't worth looking at purely because of the enormous differences in population distribution between various parts of the world.