Why is American internet so slow?

I live in the Central Europe but just for comparison, I pay here 17,5 USD/month for 40 MB/s.

 

Is it with telephone too? I know Czech internet is really cheap, nice.

 

No it is only Internet but I have a package including TV broadcast. TV costs another 15 USD/month, so the whole package amounts to 32 USD/month.

 

We've had an 8MB adsl connection since around 2005 and it's still fine. We can also get a "triple-play" package, IPTV, phone, and internet. Regarding IPTV the bitrate on the TV channels when using IPTV is too low and compressed, i'm picky when it comes to picture quality so satellite TV is the only solution that's still interesting and probably will be for a long time.

Let alone when 4K content starts to come more and more I read an article that one 4K TV channel would use 100mb/s via the internet, but the operators will of course compress it so hard so it will work for the majority of people with slower connections too. And the picture quality will suffer because of that. Same when you compare picture quality today on an HD channel via satellite, and an HD channel via IPTV one can see a clear difference in picture quality.

We can get faster connection speeds today but simply don't need it, but when we do need a faster connection we'll go for it. But IPTV no thanks.

 

I pay $130 a month.

That includes 56mbps connection, Home phone (voip), and about 100HD, and 200 regular channels. Not a stellar low price, but really for 3 major things for the home it's not bad.

I'd pay for a 100mbps+ connection if I could get one. But 56 is the fastest the fiber will safely allow them to guarantee around here - we got fiber to replace all of the copper around 2003 if I remember.

With hardware based QOS the speeds are amazing, with no bog downs. QOS will throttle non-essentials, and nitro up essentials, and it really makes a difference.

 

Folks, I see very different prices across the globe. But still I think our prices are best. Our most expensive package (Internet 240 MB/s + TV 250 channels + phone line) is no more than 65 USD/month.

 

I pay 6.5 dollars for a 30mbps line isp and another 17 for cable.
And I pay 25 dollars for a 15 mbps line over the phone.
Mrk

 

I live in Colorado, USA in a town of about 100,000. Basically, I have several choices from DSL to Satellite to Verizon 4G to Cable. I choose Comcast cable and pay about $75 USD for a 20 MB pipe. I used to have DSL but I have no trust in the company any longer.

P.S. I don't like the cable company's TV, so I use Satellite for our TV. That is partially why my internet is high....we don't "bundle" services.

 

I officially get "up to" 8Mbps from my ISP. In practice, I'm more concerned with the time it takes do large downloads, and given the best combination of web traffic and server speed at the origin end I can often get 1 MB (not Mb) or a little better/sec, which is dead-on as advertised.

Back on my old XP system I upgraded to DSL after SP2 but before SP3, so sent away for the SP2 CD but updated to SP3 online after I was no longer handicapped by dialup. I forget how big that download was, but even with MS's notorious slow servers, the whole thing (including installation) took about 45 minutes, not bad at all.

 

Things seem more expensive here at times, but it's all relative. Americans usually have more expendable income. Wargamming statistics show that approximately 75% of their player base is still at 1024x768.. ( most of their clients are in China, Russia, and many former blok countries) I haven't had a 1024x768 monitor in about a decade.

Interestingly.. WG statistics show Americans spend around $16.53 per player on their game, while Russia is about $2.89, and China is $1.19.. Further substantiating the fact that we just have more money to spend.

Also our internet isn't subsidized, in some countries - it is.

 

LOL, I've just checked out Comcast and Time Warner Cable, and what's up with the speed, it's kinda ridiculous. They call 30 Mbps "Extreme''.

http://www.timewarnercable.com/en/residential-home/internet/internet-service-plans.html

Wow, that's quite a lot, I pay 65 euro, for 120Mbps/6 Mbps, 110 digital tv channels and VOIP. Including a DVR with 4 tuners.

I will probably pay about 15 euro more for Videoland Unlimited and NLziet (unlimited access to movies, series and tv shows for a fixed price, like Netflix).

I've checked it out (we're using the same provider), I can also get 200 Mbps, but don't really need it.

 

I pay 3 times that for half the speed in the US with Comcast.

 

Here in South West Oklahoma through our cable company I get 12Mgb for $45.00 but for more money $99 I could get 50 Mgb but to expensive for me. 12 Mgb is fast enough for now.

 

i have the lowest internet subscription from my ISP: 50 Mbps, for which i pay 6.5 euro. my other choices would be 100 Mbps, 500 Mbps or 1000 Mbps.

what would you do for 1 gbps?
http://translate.google.com/transla...t=internet-fix&pachet=digi_net_fiberlink_1000

 

Well, I will take a guess, it isn't rocket science.

1- There is no cutthroat competition, ISP's don't need to beat each other up to get customers.

2- American ingenuity and know-how is a has-been. American ISPs and telecom infrastructure are behind the times. Make no mistake about it

3- There is no compelling reason to make everyone high-speed & low-cost.

I for sure don't need or want to pay for having a lot of nonsense and advertising and fluff force-fed into me. Which is what the internet is, the world's biggest BS generator. And since many people feel like me, there is little incentive for ISPs to roll out higher speeds. It all comes down to apathy and capitalist economics!

Coming from the days of 110/300 baud modems, my current speed of 3Mbps downlink and 0.7Mbps uplink is plenty fast. And I have learned to be plenty productive within that limitation. If "they" want more dynamics, interactivity, and money from me, "they" can put out richer content at faster speeds with less complex pricing structures and hoops to jump through. Otherwise my attention and time shall be focused on other things.

 

Good Evening! I'm currently residing in Northern Ontario...Canada in a small community...and using the Local Cable Company...Eastlink. I currently pay $130 mthly before taxes for my bundled services...T.V...Internet...and Home Phone. I receive a consistent 19.40Mbps...Download...and 1.04Mpbs...Upload...speeds. As a rough estimate the Internet totals $45.00. I'm so far very pleased with Eastlink's Services...and their Customer Support provides a consistent Customer First Focus. I used to reside in Toronto where I had Bell Fibe T.V. and Internet...and being an ex-Bell Employee received a discount for my Bundled Services. But Bell like the American Bell's imposed Caps on Bandwidth...and Throttled Speeds at Intervals. Overall the Bundle even with the discount was twenty to thirty dollars a month more than my existing bundle...and there are no Bandwidth Caps or Throttling incurred with Eastlink...a refreshing difference. Overall I'm impressed with my existing services. Sincerely...Securon

 

Why Broadband Service in the U.S. Is So Awful

 

I pay $150 a month and get 85/35 usually.

 

Southern Ontario, Canada here.

Cable: Express by Rogers: $54.99 + applicable taxes for abt. 17/0.58 Mbps.

 

Just be happy you are not in ZA. My exchange is one of many not supporting anything
above 4Mbps. (I used to get 6Mbps but moved house). The cost is also among the highest
worldwide.

 

Seeing your prices in this thread I should also add that our salaries don't reach yet the EU standard what does mean that prices which can be considered cheap for you may actually be a little bit expensive for our inhabitants.

 

I have recently switched to fiber, 100Mbps down and up I pay about 75 euros a month including IPTV and VoIP.
Apart from the costs, it seems to me that American internet is slow because there is very little competition in many areas. And most of the time the available ISP's are big companies that aren't very popular to say it nicely.

 

Yeah, I have the same feeling. I live in a 100K city and apart the 4 main telecom companies providing TV, net and lines I can choose from at least another 5-6 providers, so 10 options is more than enough, imo.

 

The thing that surprised me the most is that the speeds offered by cable providers in the USA is quite low. You should be able to get speeds up to 200Mbps with current technologies.

Not to go off topic, but at the moment I don´t see any advantages (except for the high upload speed) when it comes to fiber compared to cable and copper wire.
With cable you can plugin your modem/router and setopbox into the wall in almost any room in the house. With fiber optics, everything has to be connected to a main fiber modem. So if that fails, it´s game over.

I´m also disappointed that with fiber you still have to use VOIP, I have never been a fan of it because it´s less reliable. I prefer telephony based on PSTN (copper wire), but the high costs made me switch to VOIP (cable).

 

I pay 20$ (140LE) for a 1MB (down-speed is 130-180KB/s). I think you pay those 20$ for a 5MB/s down-speed?