Regarding the lack of and the slow speed of broadband service in US

[hk10Mbps]

I heard that in US and some other Western country, broadband service is very slow and not common. And I also read a news article saying that more than 50% (or more) of American Dial-up users are satisfy with their speed.

United States, as a leader of internet technology, providing most internet equipment like ADSL and Cable modem, should not have these sad news happening. I'm serious about the reasons behind these. God bless America.

 

[Mill]

Yeah I have only been able to get broadband everywhere I have lived in the US. Where do you live?

 

[thomsbrain]

Originally posted by: Millenium
Yeah I have only been able to get broadband everywhere I have lived in the US. Where do you live?

lol, same here. and there's always satillites.

 

[hk10Mbps]

> I have only been able to get broadband everywhere I have lived in the US.
What do u mean?

> Where do you live?
As my name tells, Hong Kong.

 

[ViRGE]

hk10Mbps, it's all about location location location. Compared to many nations, the US is still sparsely populated outside of the major cities(you'd be suprised how many "country folk" we have). South Korea, on the other hand, is far more dense, and easier to give broadband to as a result.

 

[XMan]

Originally posted by: hk10Mbps
> I have only been able to get broadband everywhere I have lived in the US.
What do u mean?

> Where do you live?
As my name tells, Hong Kong.

I think a lot of the problem is that the US has so much open space. There are a lot of itty bitty towns that are 200+ miles from anything you could consider civilization. I'd say that most all cities with 50,000+ people have some sort of broadband Internet available.

 

[0roo0roo]

its a bit of a mess yes. i live in silicon valley and i was just outside the dsl range until just recently. quite sad no subsidized service here so its 50 bux a month. 1.5mbs 160kbs. no cable broadband in my area either, just basic cable, go figure. they laid down fiberoptic lines in my neighborhood a couple years ago. now every house has a useless cable hooked up to the side. so its kinda iffy.

so i "could" have insane broadband if someone wanted to service me

how much is it in hk? unlimited service?

 

[ScottyB]

I got fast internet when I went to college. THe only options we had in my area was dialup(5k $22/month) and this wireless thing(20k $75/month)

 

[RichieZ]

Hmm broadband for about 4.5 yrs now.

Speakeasy SDSL 384/384 kb/s 1yr $60/mo
@Home cable maxed out around 8mb/s 1.5yrs (?) $40/mo
ATTBI cable, capped at 1.5mb/s :disgust: 1 yr(?) $47/mo
When I'm at school: 10mb/s $38,000 a yr

 

[tcsenter]

Are you kidding? I know people who still don't have cable TV service in their area, and $40-$50/month for cable is much more justifiable to far more people than for internet. A lot of people can't afford $40 - $50/month for cable plus $40 - $50/month for internet, so if they have to chose one or the other, they're gonna go for cable TV and stick with dial-up.

The majority of internet users still only use the internet for email or other stuff which doesn't require broadband.

 

[hk10Mbps]

> i live in silicon valley and i was just outside the dsl range
So I think the reason is because US has many wide open area. But what about crowded place like New York?

> how much is it in hk? unlimited service?
$HK 148/month unlimited.

 

[RichieZ]

Originally posted by: hk10Mbps
> i live in silicon valley and i was just outside the dsl range
So I think the reason is because US has many wide open area. But what about crowded place like New York?

> how much is it in hk? unlimited service?
$HK 148/month unlimited.

The problem is not everybody lives close to a CO (i belive the limit is 1.5 miles? I used to live right on the edge but I still was able to get DSL), and the wiring in many older aparment buildings won't support DSL.

I wish the US was more like south korea, broadband everywhere and super cute girls!

 

[RossMAN]

DSL was offered in my area around 1998, when I signed up.

However AT&T cable internet wasn't available until as recently as 2001.

 

[Scootin159]

Originally posted by: hk10Mbps
> i live in silicon valley and i was just outside the dsl range
So I think the reason is because US has many wide open area. But what about crowded place like New York?

> how much is it in hk? unlimited service?
$HK 148/month unlimited.

I live in NY & it's not crowded.

NYC is crowded...& I'm sure you can get broadband everywhere.

Everywhere I've lived in NY however still had broadband.

 

[ElFenix]

hong kong is a smaller area than houston. trying to roll out broadband service across large areas results in hitting the technological limit of the technology.

also, theres the fact that many people use AOL, which really isn't helped that much by high speed access since its a giant tokenized network.

and then theres that most people use the internet for email, chat, and other really low throughput applications.


that said, xbox live might be a sort of "killer app" for high speed home access.

 

[ElFenix]

oh, also, theres only so much DSLAM equipment you can cram into a local switch... once the last user is plugged into that the telco has to order up new equipment, so theres built up areas where someone will get DSL and then their neighbor would be unable to get it the next day. cable doesn't have that problem due to the shared nature.

 

[IGBT]

I don't subscribe to broadband cause they want too much for it. Over valued service. So I stay with the dial up. If I could get 150k connection for 19.95 a month I'd do it. otherwise the dialup is good enough.

 

[hk10Mbps]

> I wish the US was more like south korea, broadband everywhere and super cute girls!
Yeah south korea has many broadband user, but Japan is not bad too, they have 100Mbps optic fiber to LAN service available and their ADSL can go up to 12Mbps.

 

[dc]

broadband in the united states for the most part is overpriced and slow.

i'm in southern california.
at home i have dsl 1.5/128 for $50 a month.
at my school/apartment i have cable 768/128 for $55 a month.

 

[ed21x]

the government allows various comapnies to have monopolies over separate areas, so we're all stuck with slow providers.

 

[lowtech1]

I'm from Canada & have 1.5mbs cable for about 5 years, but what good is it to have highspeed when sites cap there download.
ie. It took me close to 11 hours to download Redhat 8.

 

[RaynorWolfcastle]

Originally posted by: lowtech
I'm from Canada & have 1.5mbs cable for about 5 years, but what good is it to have highspeed when sites cap there download.
ie. It took me close to 11 hours to download Redhat 8.

hehehe, some guy in an IRC channel pointed me to the U of Florida server for my download today (of RedHat 8)... the download took approx. 1:45 mins for all three ISOs concurrently

 

[Lucky]

Regarding the lack of and the slow speed of broadband service in US

Don't have the exact number offhand but offhand, over 75% of households have access to cable or DSL broadband, and satellite can of course be used by nearly anyone. High price and a lack of compelling content for the masses is the factor inhibiting growth in broadband services.

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: hk10Mbps
> i live in silicon valley and i was just outside the dsl range
So I think the reason is because US has many wide open area. But what about crowded place like New York?

> how much is it in hk? unlimited service?
$HK 148/month unlimited.

hm cheap. its 7 hk to 1 us right?

that being said, almost everyone i know has broadband now. but many only got it this year.

 

[CJZ]

Originally posted by: Lucky

Regarding the lack of and the slow speed of broadband service in US

Don't have the exact number offhand but offhand, over 75% of households have access to cable or DSL broadband, and satellite can of course be used by nearly anyone. High price and a lack of compelling content for the masses is the factor inhibiting growth in broadband services.

Exactly. Prices here are just not competitive. It doesn't matter if we can choose between cable broadband or dsl broadband when both services are monopolies.

And content is lacking. In Korea (went this summer to visit family) they have broadband Video-On-Demand from the major TV networks and a lot of people watch old shows that they missed or want to see again anytime they want. Unlikely that we'll see something like that here in the US.