Broadband in the US seems stalled out
In the past 18 months broadband access here in Japan has gone from nonexistent to fantastic. What happened in the US? It seems like phone companies are raising rates and haggling about control.
Here in Japan 1.5Mb ADSL costs as cheap as $10 a month. Now the push is on to upgrade everyone to 8Mbit service. We just upgraded to 8Mb ADSL for our small office and the price dropped to about $25/month, and we got the relatively pricey NTT service.
In some areas of Tokyo you can get a 10Mbit optical fiber brought to your home for about $50/month. For apartment buildings and offices they now offer 100Mbit fiber for about $80/month.
Recently the electric power companies started banding together to take on NTT in the broadband business. They have fiber optic along side their power cables so they have a huge amount of unused capacity. Any they already have the right-of-way to everyone's home.
I'm moving back to the States next month. The one thing I most wish I could take back with me is our internet service.
Here in Japan 1.5Mb ADSL costs as cheap as $10 a month. Now the push is on to upgrade everyone to 8Mbit service. We just upgraded to 8Mb ADSL for our small office and the price dropped to about $25/month, and we got the relatively pricey NTT service.
In some areas of Tokyo you can get a 10Mbit optical fiber brought to your home for about $50/month. For apartment buildings and offices they now offer 100Mbit fiber for about $80/month.
Recently the electric power companies started banding together to take on NTT in the broadband business. They have fiber optic along side their power cables so they have a huge amount of unused capacity. Any they already have the right-of-way to everyone's home.
I'm moving back to the States next month. The one thing I most wish I could take back with me is our internet service.
Comments
<strong>In the past 18 months broadband access here in Japan has gone from nonexistent to fantastic. What happened in the US?</strong><hr></blockquote>
Well, a huge proportion of Japan's population lives in a few very dense cities. The physical costs of maintaining the infrastructure are limited. Also, a highly urbanized population has extremely high demand for broadband Internet access. To top it off, much of Japan's infrastructure is quite newer than that in the US.
Don't let anyone offer you any excuses. The US now has worse Broadband than most. Rates have risen...performance hasn't improved. Costs have skyrocketed pushing small ISP's out of business. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 was supposed to spur new growth and competition but has failed. Where is the viable competions for your Local and Long Distance Phone Service? Where are the different choices for Broadband. Working for and ISP previously I realized that there are no emminent changes coming over the Horizon...there is no "magical elixir" we are simply stuck wih a poor infrastructure that is owned by the spawn of the largest Monopoly in US Hist(Ma Bell) now we have 6 regional Monopolies and the same crappy service. Get used to it.
Another thing...concerning cable modems. Are all cable modems the same, or does every cable provider have their own proprietary version/design of cable modems? If they are all the same then why hasn't Apple or other PC manufacturers haven't made this a BTO item. I think that would be an interesting pursuit...only if they're all the same though.
I just kind of laugh that all Apple and PC computers still only offer the lame, standard 56 kb modem...so '90's... <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" />
AT&T is just pure evil given my experiences with them...as bad as the telcos are, nobody gives you the run-around / over-blown sales hype / shitty service that AT&T does.
Pitiful...
<img src="graemlins/oyvey.gif" border="0" alt="[No]" />
<strong>When broadband pricing becomes $19.95 (about the same as my ISP service) I'll get it. I think the companies selling the service are all scams. "This is new technology...so you pay more." Right, broadband is "new".
Another thing...concerning cable modems. Are all cable modems the same, or does every cable provider have their own proprietary version/design of cable modems? If they are all the same then why hasn't Apple or other PC manufacturers haven't made this a BTO item. I think that would be an interesting pursuit...only if they're all the same though.
I just kind of laugh that all Apple and PC computers still only offer the lame, standard 56 kb modem...so '90's... <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" /> </strong><hr></blockquote>
Cablemodems support a standard called DOCSIS...DLS supports a few standards G.LiteXXX being one of them. They of course standardize signalling and a variety of other issue to ensure interoperability.
Frankly it's pathetic that we have such subpar Telecommunications. We're behind Europe in Cell Phone Tech and behind Canada and many others in Broadband...yet Hollywood other other overhype Broadband as the key to bring out new services.....ummmm yeah right
<strong>
Well, a huge proportion of Japan's population lives in a few very dense cities. The physical costs of maintaining the infrastructure are limited. Also, a highly urbanized population has extremely high demand for broadband Internet access. To top it off, much of Japan's infrastructure is quite newer than that in the US.</strong><hr></blockquote>
This does have a huge impact on prices...large US telcos have always subsidized rural rates with income from urban rates. 99.9% of the time, telcos lose money on rural customer, consequently charging urban customers more. so, japanese telcos can maintain loops for less than $5/month, most likely.
i guess, after babbling, i realized this doesn't really apply to DSL though, because DSL has to be w/in two miles of the CO, generally, so rural/urban cross subsidization doesn't have a major impact here. i am not sure about japan, but in the US, it was law that telcos put these things on copper loops longer than 2 miles that kill some of the higher frequencies (reducing noise), but consequently, when adsl came along in a few years, it used those higher frequencies. can anyone remember what those things they put on the lines are called? i forget. anyhow, now there is a great deal of expense going into removing these puppies and (usually) updating everything > 2 miles with fiber. plus telcos have to unbundle the DSLAM per 1996 TCOM act (well, DSLAM unblundling was only made officially recently) in order to allow competitors to buy only the high-freq part of the loop. So, there are certainly costs involved there. Throw in lawyers and the FCC, and US telcos have a handful, so perhaps that justifies some of the aDSL expense.
So why is cable service so much? i don't know too much about this, so lets here some reason. I cannot think of too many excuses for Cable prices, spare the big guys think they have an excuse to keep them on par aDSL prices.
what is the state of competition in Japan and Europe? How about regulation? Just curious...
go to <a href="http://www.bandwidthplace.com"; target="_blank">bandwidthplace</a> and tell us what you get on the test...
<strong>i guess, after babbling, i realized this doesn't really apply to DSL though, because DSL has to be w/in two miles of the CO, generally, so rural/urban cross subsidization doesn't have a major impact here.</strong><hr></blockquote>
I can confirm that the broadband opportunities are a hell of a lot better in Columbus than they are in Athens
Yes, but our landline service is supposedly the best in the world. Our cell phones run on a different system than does Europe's, and I agree, are nowhere near it in terms of performance and features.
Broadband is too expensive. I will pay it because I am addicted to broadband. But, when one can get a premium dial-up ISP for $20-25 a month, and must pay almost $50 a month for cable or DSL, "it ain't gonna happen".
PS: I am moving to a new construction neighborhood next month. Hope I'm not ****ed.
[ 06-19-2002: Message edited by: SDW2001 ]
[ 06-19-2002: Message edited by: SDW2001 ]</p>
storage: 123.7 kb/s
Southwestern Bell ADSL
It says that's better than average. Hm. <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" />
[ 06-19-2002: Message edited by: CosmoNut ]</p>
<a href="http://www.bandwidthplace.com/"; target="_blank">Bandwidthplace.com</a>
1.4Mbps UP
153Kbps DOWN
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<a href="http://www.knowledgenet.com/test/speedtest.html"; target="_blank">Knowledgenet.com</a>
1651.8 Kbps
202.4 K bytes/sec
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<a href="http://www.2wire.com/support/index.html#"; target="_blank">2Wire</a>
Bandwidth = 1586.9 Kbps
---------------------------------------------------
Just remember to clear your cache!
<img src="graemlins/smokin.gif" border="0" alt="[Chilling]" />
[ 06-19-2002: Message edited by: Ebby ]</p>
Knowledgenet.com : about 400 to 767kbps
2wire : about 1,000kbps
I notice that I never get very high speeds from any one particular server. Apple's servers for the QT movie trailers are the fastest I've seen. They regularly pump out 160k-bytes/sec. Most of the time downloads top out around 80 - 100 k-bytes/sec.
What I do see with this connection is that you can easily run simultaneous fast connections. For example, I can run several downloads at once where the aggregate speed will hit 200k-bytes/sec or more. We share this connection among about ten people on an Asante Router and switch and we never notice that anyone else is using it.
There must be a dozen companies in Japan offering ADSL. Yahoo Japan is the cheapest, (980yen/month) about $8/month. If you add ISP services it totals about $20/month.
I heard that Earthlink has to pay the Baby Bells about $35/month for a DSL connection. Seems like that is where the ripoff is.
<strong>
I can confirm that the broadband opportunities are a hell of a lot better in Columbus than they are in Athens
yeah, being isolated in appalachia has its downfalls, but we have bigger hills! so i tried to call verizon to get dsl and they said 'no, you may not have it.'
so i got earthlink through timewarner. i guess $42/month isn't too bad.
SHARED w/my bro, he has the modem, I use airport... considering, its not THAT bad...
Btw im WAY below average in my area for cable modems....
Regarding pricing, I wish it were less expensive too. Glad to hear about broadband service in the rest of the world. When you have several Macs connected to the internet at the same time, for much of the day, broadband is really necessary, especially to keep the phone line open.
I NEED broadband!
grrrrrrr!!!!!
we're probably not going to have any broadband in our area for at least 6 months(at least that would be if their projection for broadband in a year...a year ago is even relativley accurate)
I'm currently posting this on a 26k connection for crissakes! I can't even get a decent 56k or 28.8
GRRR!!!!
worst of all, our house was designed for broadband(cat 5 wiring EVERYWHERE, big hub) so we only have 1 phone line(the house is supposed to have one phone line, and the internet on a cat5 ethernet line) so I can't use the internet for more than a few minutes during the daytime because there are many people that need the phone, I can only use the internet really late at night when no one calls....soooo lame!
about 6 different DSL providers have said they could service us...then sure enough 2-4 weeks later we get an email saying that they can't....adelphia cable serves us(crappy) digital cable, and they are about to go bankrupt so their broadband(which IS available down the main street)is probably not going to hit us any time soon....our only hopes are for time warner....since they MIGHT service us here(we're not even very secluded at all)
oh well enough bitching!
DAMN japan you got 10mbit in your homes!
thats insane!
Prices keep dropping here. My wife just got broadband for her parents from Yahoo Japan. The pacakage is:
12Mbit ADSL (Yes 12Mbit. A week or so ago they introduced 12Mbit ADSL in Japan.)
ISP included
modem rental included
internet telephone which attaches to modem included.
Internet calls to other Yahoo phones free.
Internet calls to regular phones about 5 cents a minute.
Installation is free.
First two months free.
Installation promised in 10 days.
If they are late you get another month free.
Price: ~2,600 yen/month (about $21.50 per month)
This is the one souvenir I really want to take home to California with me.
Why will I have to pay three times as much or more for less service in the US? No wonder broadband adoption is slowing down in the US.
By the way, I just got an email from my provider (AT&T) offering 100Mbit Fiber Optic service in case you are dissatisfied with the slowness of ADSL!
<img src="graemlins/smokin.gif" border="0" alt="[Chilling]" />
I pay $80 a month for 256 kbps. Yes it sucks THAT MUCH!
Now, I bet you all now prefer your private 8-company monopoly than the ONE STATE OWNED MONOPOLY in my country.
****IN SOCIALISTS. I tell you, we should have kicked them out of the government decades ago, but NO! they are still in there stealing our taxes and blinding people with the 'it is best for everyone' BULLSH*T.