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The NYT Compares Broadband Upgrade Costs in US, Japan

Posted by timothy on from the and-it-ain't-pretty dept.

zxjio writes with this excerpt from a New York Times article about just how much networking infrastructure costs vary between the US and Japan: "Pretty much the fastest consumer broadband in the world is the 160-megabit-per-second service offered by J:Com, the largest cable company in Japan. Here's how much the company had to invest to upgrade its network to provide that speed: $20 per home passed. ... Verizon is spending an average of $817 per home passed to wire neighborhoods for its FiOS fiber optic network and another $716 for equipment and labor in each home that subscribes, according to Sanford C. Bernstein & Company. ... The experience in Japan suggests that the major cable systems in the United States might be able to increase the speed of their broadband service by five to 10 times right away. They might not need to charge much more for it than they do now and they would still make as much money."

4 of 257 comments (clear)

  1. Crazy by Caustic+Soda · · Score: 5, Interesting

    That's just...ridiculous. No wonder they have such enormous speeds compared to the US. At least the States get a decent speed though. Here in Australia you tend to pay through the nose for anything more than 1Mb/s

    1. Re:Crazy by AI0867 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Actually, they measure it in meters or centimeters, but your point still stands.
      This makes me wonder why the speeds in the Netherlands don't go much over 20mbps, as we actually have a higher population density than Japan.

  2. Re:High density = no digging by Fusen · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Oh I forgot to add, the 50Mbit being offered is purely down to this being their first push into using DOCSIS 3, the company has been quoted as saying once they make sure their network is working properly and more areas are supported, in a year or less they'll start offering 80Mbit and upwards to 120Mbit. All still based on the hardware the current 50Mbit subscribers use and all still not requiring any digging.

  3. Re:Journalism meets Technology ... by v1 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    What I wonder is, are companies like Cox pulling maneuvers similar to "Hollywood Accounting" to make their end costs really high, which would appear to justify jacking everyone's rates up, but under the table they're paying themselves off (via their affiliate or otherwise owned companies) and turning an insane profit in the big picture?

    --
    I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.