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Well, here in Sweden, http://www.bostream.com/ among others are offering 26Mbps DSL connections. They're not expensive either at 398 SEK / month which is roughly $50 USD. It works quite well with steady speeds running at around 15 - 18 Mbps.

Interesting you should say that, My ISP (I live in Sweden) sends BBC for free down the broadband connection, using "PC-TV".

The 26 Mbit (up and down!) see bostream

Bredbandsbolaget offer 10mbit or 24mbit vdsl, 100mbit or 1 Gigbit to appartment buildings, and free BBC feed.

I don't know how the cost compares but for >10mbit *dsl costs about $52.72 a month.

A little clarification is required I think regarding the Bostream's scream, as it is heavily dependant on distance from the phone station:

• Less than 300 m: up to 26/26 Mbps (4-channel VDSL)
• Less than 1000 m: up to 13/13 Mbps (4-channel VDSL)
• Less than 5500 m: up to 8/1 Mbps (ADSL)

Very few will actually be able to get the 26 Mbps due to the awfully short maximum distance to the phone station.

And then there is the scream lite that is a bit cheaper but with some considerably slower speeds, from e.g. 256/64 kbps for 198.00 kr SEK = $27.64 USD.

I myself have Bostream's scream and as I live about 3500 m away from the phone station I thus have the 8/1 Mbps ADSL. It works pretty well, the maximum download speeds I've got is over 900 kB/s when having multiple downloads in progress at the same time. The highest individual download speed I've seen so far was about 700 kB/s.

A little clarification is required I think regarding the Bostream's scream, as it is heavily dependant on distance from the phone station:

• Less than 300 m: up to 26/26 Mbps (4-channel VDSL)
• Less than 1000 m: up to 13/13 Mbps (4-channel VDSL)
• Less than 5500 m: up to 8/1 Mbps (ADSL)

Very few will actually be able to get the 26 Mbps due to the awfully short maximum distance to the phone station.

And then there is the scream lite that is a bit cheaper but with some considerably slower speeds, from e.g. 256/64 kbps for 198.00 kr SEK = $27.64 USD.

I myself have Bostream's scream and as I live about 3500 m away from the phone station I thus have the 8/1 Mbps ADSL. It works pretty well, the maximum download speeds I've got is over 900 kB/s when having multiple downloads in progress at the same time. The highest individual download speed I've seen so far was about 700 kB/s.

Sweden, for some very strage reason, has three providers offering symmetrical, 10 Mbps or bigger connections for less than 65 USD a month. I'm not a swede, and don't have information in English, but you should be able to decipher what matters here. The yellow box below the headline has the speeds and prices. One Swedish krona is roughly 13.5 US cents, prices are per month and anslutningsavgift is the one-time hookup fee.

As you can see in the Aftonbladet article, Telia has just entered the fray. They were literally forced to do so, by competition from Bredbandsbolaget and Bostream.

Bredbandsbolaget, apparently not content with losing their edge (their connections are generally considered better than Bostream's, dispite the bandwidth advertised), are preparing to roll out a 100 Mbps service next year, with a 300GB/mo traffic limit, rumored to cost in the neighbourhood of 120 USD/mo; I wonder how people will survive such terribly restrictive limits, heh.

In most urban scenarios, there isn't any divide and conquer going on. Having many providers competing in the same areas has its advantages.

I've never even been to Sweden, but happen to know a lot of Swedish netizens. Most of those are hard-core gamers, the most demanding users you'll find; anything short of 1MB/sec downloads and 10ms latency domestically, and they'll be screaming.

Actually, last year (2002-10-29, if I remember correctly) they closed down all SMTP traffic from DSL accounts without any type of notice. Yes, you did read that correctly. Without notice!

A lot of companies and individuals switched other companies like Bostream and Bredbandsbolaget. I don't think anyone ever regretted this. Because Telia mostly....hm, is not that good. :)

This had one amusing side effect thou. Telias customer support service used DSL and could not send any mail to their clients. Nice going...

No, its not in the US. And, he pays about $250 per month. BTW, I'll get my 26Mbit/sec VDSL any week now, $250/month; check out Bostream to see if you live anywhere near their services.

Damn, that blew my bragging rights for 26 MBit/sec with VDSL... Ok, I won't get it until September, but still. Check out Scream at www.bostream.com for about 35 USD a month through your telephone wires. Make sure your area is covered by their services.

My ISP, Bostream, offers this to customers already. Here's their service info page (in swedish)

In essense it says depending on distance to your switch, you get:

<300m: 26 Mbps full duplex
<1000m: 13 Mbps full duplex
>1000m: 8/1 Mbps (down/up)

Price: 399 SEK/month (~50 USD)

Another swedish ISP, Bredbandsbolaget, is also offering VDSL but currently "only" up to 10Mbit.