The NYT Compares Broadband Upgrade Costs in US, Japan

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."

Comments

Re:Japan Broadband = Dense population

[drinkypoo]

LA has about 30 million people in an area the size of LA, too, but many of them are illegal Mexicans who may have a cell phone but certainly don't have broadband. OTOH, LA and Tokyo are both slated to be submerged :)

please cite

[way2trivial]

please read the above page and get back to us about where it says the USF is collected to build out broadband infrastructure.

it is used in certain small and rural areas- but it is not for "everyone's network buildout"