why does it cost so much?

You guys should look into a company named SureWest broadband that has been offering 20 Mb/s up/down for at least 3 years in Sacramento County. They even offer a 50 Mb/s for around $250/month to home users. They are a fiber to the home provider and I have the 20 Mb/s service and love it.

I never knew that broadband Internet in the States is so expensive and so slow. The offer from Deutsche Telekom is relativly expensive. There are provider here who offer an complete package, ISDN,aDSL 16MBit/Upload as fast a possible with flat rates for telephony, Internet and cell phone within there own net (from and to the cell phone) plus some extras like online-storage etc. for just 32 Euro per month. And without any longterm contracts. You can cancel it anytime to the end of the month.
And most Germans feel that DSL ist too expensive here.:-)

because it's not just the fiber line going to your house but also the cost of backbones for all these high speed you are sharing.
all these tech guys maintaining it and the accounting fokes and service people cost money.

I have 20mbps fibre optic Internet
and it just isn't worth the $44 per month (£22, Inc phone line)
I get about 2.4mbps when downloading stuff, but it isn't constant and it averages out a lot less

Even with the weak dollar, Internet in France is the cheapest. Read this: 20Mbps digital TV a landline phone with unlimited communication with about 30-40 countries = 50 euros / month. With the current value of the euro, thats a grand total of $80.00 / month!

The reason that it costs so much is that there isn't much competition in the US. I know a lot of people (in Michigan) that only have one choice: Comcast. They're not covered by anyone else, or AT&T at best with their crappy speed.

any catch on this high spead line like comcast do?
like give you 6mpbs but won't let you download all you can and threathen you to cancel your account?

Qwest is the legacy carrier here in the West not Quest. I live in a well established neighborhood in a large metropolitan area, but since I'm 20,000 feet from the CO, DSL is out of the question. I do get up to 11Mb/s from Cox cable though.

[Thanks. Error fixed. -ed]

Comcast also has an 8mb co wide option at $52.95 p/m at non-promotional price. They are also test flying 16mb and 50mb in some markets. Not sure on the price for the 16mb but the new 50mb is like $150. I think they're aiming it at small buisinesses and testing the waters to see how much people would be willing to pay for a service like that. What's funny is that most people don't realize their download speed depends heavily on the sources upload speed... Even if a company has the bandwidth to upload at 40-50mbps most of the time they will limit a single connection to a smaller ammount to allow for simultanious connections... Times are changing though, who knows... Oh, and comcast expects the 50mb to be rolled out Co wide by 2010ish and i also read that they may be able to tripple that sometime to 150mbps! Woot! Either way... internets still to expensive nation wide imo.

I called Qwest immediately, as I'm in the Denver area. The rep checked my line, and it's not available to me. He said that he's only had one line that he checked today that actually had the new service available.

Look here:
http://www.alice-dsl.de/kunden...ndex.html

I got this for a couple of Years -- they upped all their plans to 16 MB late last year. I think this ist still "expensive" cause your dsl speed is not guaranteed, but after reading that your fios connection is basicly a fraud. FIOS means Fiber Optic to your house and should give you 100MB as a downstream. Free Market is not always the best as shown by the prices of your dsl providers...

Greets from Europe ..

Still too expensive and slow.
I am using 100Mbps (practically I got more than 90 from dedicated test server) with $25 per month in Korea.
I also have to pay $45 for 2Mbps DSL for my home in MN. I even have no competitor to try other source in the area
Too bad.

Does the author actually do research or just regurgitate material from another source??

This actual connection is just upgraded DSL. This is NOT fiber to the home, and will never have anywhere near the capacity or future upgrade possibilities as a REAL fiber connection ala Verizon FIOS.

10 Mb/s / 10Mb/s14 €
20 Mb/s / 20Mb/s28 €
50 Mb/s / 50Mb/s50 €
100 Mb/s / 100mb/s100 €
200 Mb/s / 200Mb/s200 €
300 Mb/s / 300Mb/s300 €
500 Mb/s / 500 Mb/s500 €
1 Gb/s / 1Gb/s1000 €

This are the prices for the FTTH internet that is available in all bigger cities across Slovenia. And digital TV with over 140 channals is 14€.

in croatia you get flat rate internet
DSL and Cable up to 16Mbit or Fiber up to 10mbit and wimax up to 3Mbit ... price is 60 Euro for 16 mbit, thats at around 86 USD ...
but slowest flate rate connection goes from some 18 USD ...

there is also 24mbit dsl available.. but only on selected areas where phone lines permit it...

for slovenia you can look speeds they offer here (slovenian national operator)
http://www.siol.net/storitve/internet/siol_internet.aspx
i know its on slovenian, but you will understand speeds... and prices in euro...

they are offering up to 1/1 Gbit/s on fiber....

FYI-

I'm currently living in Beaverton, Oregon. I have Verizon fios with fiber to the door. I'm paying 99.00 a month for the following package-15/2 Internet, Verizon Freedom package with unlimited long distance, and Verizon cable TV.

I called and negotiated with Verizon for these prices. DON'T BE AFRAID to ask for a better deal from your service providers.

Finally, I would like to add that I've had excellent customer service from Verizon and haven't had a dropped internet signal in years (I have had DSL the past 5 years through Verizon).

Keith

...are always cheaper in a country you can drive across in a single afternoon... The reason US lags in this area is PURELY related to our geography, particularly that there is LOTS of it. Wiring a place like the Netherlands is about like wiring one of fifty states in the US. More and longer fiber = more cost.

Simple economics, surprised so many missed it.

Scott - "The reason US lags in this area is PURELY related to our geography"

The internet operates on backbones. What does relaying data through various back bones that have been in existence for a long time have to do with cost today?

I would suggest a history refreshing of the internet.

The reason the US lags on prices is NOT simple economics. It's because internet 1 was turned over to corporations with no regulations on pricing. And those entities have greased the politicians hands to allow this crap to take place.

The other countries have made the internet a requirement for the future. The government eats the cost as a pork project.

USA ate the cost as well it's called I2. The fastest of all connections and continuously setting WORLD records for transmission.

An example of big business controlling this process is the fact that we have faster speeds purchasable now. You can get a T3 which is 45 Meg (two times faster than 29Meg in article), OC3 is 155 Meg OC12 is 620 Meg, a OC48 is like 2.5 Gig which is as fast as 48 T3's.

There is eve a WDM or BGP4 connection LOL that's 10 gig and higher. But it'll cost over 10k per month.

Imagine budgeting and you line item in "my internet connection". Then slide over to the debit column and pencil in 15K or so for the month. :-)

We give lots of money to other countries, have all kinds of pork projects. Pay farmers NOT to produce, that should be unheard of by the way. And so many other wasted dollars. And yet the internet and technology are on the back burner. And is instead used as a way to manufacture jobs and business surrounding I1.

To make sure you understand the difference. The companies here make up a portion of the I1 backbone. I2 is mostly USA owned hardware and cost for connection absorbed by government. The selected schools(about 200), select number of research firms and companies are allowed to connect and use I2 backbone.

Here a map of coverage areas
www.tgdaily.com/content/view/34284/103

So that you understand how bad (as in bad ass) I2 is, they are currently performing live feeds between students and teachers. The teacher has a live camera feed to each student on several screens. And all students receive a live feed of the teacher giving lecture. No longer required to physically sit in a classroom. So disability students can learn from the comfort of home.

Douglas Van Houweling
http://www.internet2.edu/membership/index.cfm