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Why America Won't Match Sweden's Cheap, Fast, Competitive Internet Services

Posted by Soulskill on from the not-enough-enmity-for-the-finns dept.

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.

3 of 346 comments (clear)

  1. It's not just Sweden by CRCulver · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

    1. Re:It's not just Sweden by CRCulver · · Score: 5, Informative

      Population density arguments don't hold water because Sweden has lower population density than the United States. Furthermore, even in densely populated areas of the United States, broadband is likely to be of lower quality (slower, more expensive) than sparsely populated areas of Europe.

  2. Even cheaper than that in Sweden. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    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 =)