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Why America Won't Match Sweden's Cheap, Fast, Competitive Internet Services
ashshy writes: Swedish Internet services run both cheaper and faster than American ones. For example, many Swedes can pay about $40 a month for 100/100 mbps, choosing between more than a dozen competing providers. It's all powered by a nationwide web of municipal networks in direct competition with ex-government telecom Telia's fiber backbone. The presence of regional government in the Swedish data stream makes many Americans uncomfortable, to say nothing of the very different histories between these backbone buildouts. The Motley Fool explains how the Swedish model developed, and why the U.S. is unlikely ever to follow suit.
It's already been a decade that I've had fiber to my door here in Romania for about $15/month. Recently the ISP started offering gigabit for only two or three dollars more. And it's really reliable high-speed too: no throttling, even when I torrent hundreds of gigabytes a month of films. Show Americans how it works in Northern Europe and they might chalk it all down to the unusual social harmony there. That even villages in a corrupt Eastern Europe country have better and cheaper internet does more to underscore a deep problem with US broadband.
The building I live in in Stockholm has a deal with the ISP Bredbandsbolaget where everyone (ca 200 apartments) pays 15 USD/mo for 100/100. For an additional 10 USD/mo they upgraded my connection to 250/100. My summerhouse in the middle of nowhere has a 100/100 via fiber for about 30 USD/mo.
Sometimes socialist Sweden is nice =)
Are you defining "Internet access" to include wireless, satellite, dial-up, or DSL? If so, you're including options that are much more expensive or rely on outdated technology.
If you are saying that you have 5 providers of wired, broadband Internet access in your small town, then congratulations. You're better off than most of us are. The vast majority of America has one or two wired broadband ISPs to choose from. I happen to only have one: Time Warner Cable.
Some Americans are even worse off and don't have any wired broadband ISP in their town. When they decide to get together and form a municipal broadband ISP, though, the big ISPs who have refused to wire them suddenly declare this "unfair competition" and tie them up in court cases. (Amazing how it is "unfair competition" if a municipality wants to serve an area a big ISP isn't serving, but Comcast and Time Warner say they don't compete because they serve different areas.)
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
As opposed to Verizon/ISPs which passes the FULL costs directly on to you while providing 10% of the service value? Oh and Verizon was granted plenty of subsidies to actually build the network in the first place so your tax dollars are already involved whether you like it or not.
People in cars cause accidents....accidents in cars cause people
http://www.economist.com/news/...
It's both. Regional monopoly on Layer 2. Small monthly fee for subscribers to access the municipal net and a choice of providers with the desired services. Each muni net takes care of building, maintaining and upgrading of the hardware. Providers take care of any other services. My net currently provide Gb connections to end-customers and a variety of services including several IPTV, phone and Internet providers. Most have both package deals and a la carte while some only provide internet access depending on your needs as a customer.