DAMN Japan!

1/5/2010 12:35:14 AM

Something seems off about that price per mbps number. If the US averages 4.8mbps and there's an average price of $3.33, does that mean the average person pays $16 for internet access? Seems way too low for me. I end up paying ~$12 per mbps. Granted, I live in the middle of nowhere and am lucky to be able to get anything besides dial-up, but even paying $66/mo for 20mbps service seems...well that's about the service level where that $3.33 number starts making sense.

1/5/2010 12:47:24 AM

us population density: 82.924 /square mile
jap population density: 874.313 /square mile

1/5/2010 1:35:30 AM

^regions of the US (mid atlantic, north east, california) should be competitive with sweden, norway, finland, france

1/5/2010 1:47:41 AM

I'm going to Korea in February...I'm bringing all the YEN I can and buying me some INTERNETS!!!1

1/5/2010 3:40:52 AM

i'm surprised Portugal is as expensive as it is. And sweden is number 4? They have a population of only 9 million, and most of northern Sweden (Lapland) doesn't even have internet access.

1/5/2010 7:16:35 AM

Sweden's broadband is heavily government subsidized. This is probably the case in some of the other countries with seemingly dirt cheap broadband.

That number does not take into account the taxes one pays to have such 'cheap' broadband.

1/5/2010 7:52:38 AM

http://www.thelocal.se/7869/20070712/

^^probably because this slut is slurping it all.

[Edited on January 5, 2010 at 7:53 AM. Reason : .]

1/5/2010 7:52:51 AM

South korea has some of the fastest internet in the world. I do not even see them listed on this.

1/5/2010 8:19:12 AM

they're second place... maybe you didnt notice cause its listed as just korea?

1/5/2010 8:21:53 AM

ah i see now

1/5/2010 12:16:38 PM

Quote :

"^regions of the US (mid atlantic, north east, california) should be competitive with sweden, norway, finland, france"

broadband in densely populated areas subsidizes rural areas, not to mention backbone costs for going accross the us/out to bum fuck nowhere.

In addition the FCC is worthless and has completely bought into the net neutrality red herring. Successfully distracting them from the fact that they've allowed the telcos to consolidate down to 3 regional monopolies.

1/5/2010 12:27:41 PM

South Korea has a population density of about 1,200 per square mile (compare to 81 per square mile here in the US). Another way to think of it is having 44 million people living in a land area the size of Indiana. With population densities that high, it's much easier and cheaper to deploy and upgrade broadband networks.

That being said, given the sheer amount of government money we've blown on alleged network upgrades back in the 1990s, we should be better off than where we are now.

1/5/2010 1:51:07 PM

A study was done to determine the difference between advertised speed and usable throughput using data from a file downloading site and they found that in many countries the usable throughput was no where near the advertised speed. And the largest disparity was found in Japan, which advertised 100mbps but actually averaged something like 20mbps, where-as Canada's advertised speeds only averaged 8mpbs but usable throughput was very close at 7mbps (numbers vague recollections, I'll try to find the study and link it if I can).

Which begs the question: was this graphic created using the average advertised speeds or the average actual usable throughput?

1/5/2010 2:04:16 PM

probably advertised speeds and they probably just looked at landline connections in japan, but included wireless connections in the US.

also its kind of moot to have a fast connection in other countries b/c the US is the only place with any content worth getting.

1/5/2010 2:13:52 PM

Thought I remembered reading about some lady that had a fiber drop at her house in Sweden and that they had given up landlines. I expected them to be higher.

Quote :

"not to mention backbone costs for going accross the us/out to bum fuck nowhere. "

Hopefully WiMAX will take off and aid in the "last mile" struggle!

1/5/2010 6:09:51 PM

Quote :

"Thought I remembered reading about some lady that had a fiber drop at her house in Sweden"

you don't say

1/5/2010 6:25:40 PM