Broadband Pricing Across The World?

Freedom_Canadian writes "I was wondering if it would be possible to put up a world map with broadband internet pricing. The prices in Eastern Canada are ridiculous comparing to some states, around $24 US for DSL or cable. I would like to know who is getting screwed, and who are the lucky ones." What are the best and worst prices in your own area? Perhaps someone handy with graphics can collect some good data points from your comments and create such a beast.

Comments

DC Area

[npistentis]

We pay 45 for a cable modem, dsl is 35... which i find completely absurd.

Location, Location, Location

[jonman_d]

Don't forget, location matters. Everyone always talks about how cheap (compared to the United States) broadband is in Japan, for example. Well, of course it is! In Japan, everything is closer together, meaning less line required to get broadband into the home, meaning less costs for the company, meaning lower prices.

The same goes from state-to-state, and area-to-area. Areas with higher population density will generally have less expessive broadband than areas where the population is spread out.

Re:Location, Location, Location

[ergo98]

The Canadian government subsidizes broadband, making it less expensive

The Canadian government has initiatives to bring broadband out to rural areas (i.e. way up North). They don't subsidize broadband for the vast majority of Canadians (who are those living in fairly urban settings). Cogeco isn't getting a cheque from the government for my broadband.

Canadian citizens have to pay taxes to support their socialist government

Right...socialist. And of course where you live every road is a pay road, every service is a user-pay (fire call -- pay up. Need police services? Better have your chequebook!), and the government is minimalist -- anything else is socialist.

upstate New York

[plnrtrvlr]

$44 a month for Road-Runner and $48 for DSL from Citizens Telecom.... I'd say that aren't even using vaseline.

pricing

[ir0b0t]

The rural mountainous states in the US are less populated and tougher to cover with access. An analog to the Tennessee Valley Authority (rural electrification in the US) is needed to spread the cost for the public benefit of universal access. And before *that* can happen the political culture in the US probably needs to . . . er, change some.

Re:Ireland

[jawtheshark]

Because it is how it has always been working. You pay for usage. Besides, why would you think you are entitled to free local calls? You use their infrastructure whilst calling, you are using a service, you pay for it.

I do remember though that in my country local calls tended to be a about 0,13Euro per hour. Nearly as good as free. The drawback was that after an hour of calling your line got disconnected and you needed to call again. This was back in the 80ties.

Look, I can inverse your statement: "I cannot understand that a cellphone user has to pay for incoming calls in the US". That would be a lie of course because I know why this is so. You see, that is a direct consequence of having free local calls. US consumers were used to not paying for local calls and with the advent of cellphones it became impossible to see the difference between a local number and a cell. Somebody had to bear the costs and it were the cellphone users. (Why in the US they didn't allocate a specific block for cellphones is beyond me, but it might have technical reasons).

Of course you can say "Yes, but with my cellphone plan I get 300 free minutes a month, so I don't have to care about incoming calls". Really depends how much that base plan is. My cellphone bills average 5 to 10 Euro per month for low level usage. Why? Because I have a free base-pack and only pay for the calls I make (no, it's not a prepaid card, it's a real subscription and I have to pay them per month)

Ireland, up2&over $100 p/m

[zoney_ie]

You have to pay for phone line rental too - I think Eircom (Ex-State Telecoms monopoly) is something like 26 p/m for the phone connection. Chorus (the State's main cable/wireless TV) charge about half the amount on their wireless phone connections. So altogether it can cost over 75/$100 for 256kb down here in Ireland. Surely we're the most expensive State in the E.U. Broadband is only available in major cities and selected areas. Few areas have more than one provider (I know of only 4). The Irish govt./Eircom plans are to rollout to all towns over pop. 1000 next year. Businesses can get better deals - particularly if in an area with the competitors (E.G. Esat BT - Irish branch of BT - British Telecom, and UTV internet - Ulster Television - Northern Ireland's TV station). Broadband is offered mainly via telephone lines - though Chorus offered wireless broadband till the equipment supplier went bust.

24$ in USA?

[nurb432]

THen why do i see it advertised for 50$ everywhere i look?

25$ would be nice.

For your 'chart' be sure to take into effect the different relative value of a 'dollar'...