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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.
Apparently you are unaware that even in those sparsely populated parts of Sweden, people enjoy broadband superior to what most of the United States can get. Good broadband is not just something that coastal/southern Sweden enjoys, it reaches well out into the boonies even if customers there are few.
The European model has long been that because running the cables is a natural monopoly it is best for the government to handle the cable and let private business compete on top of that. The fact that most of Europe has wild ISP competition without impacting provided speeds suggests that their model may in fact be better.
Also attempts at this in the US have had mixed results. Well run municipal broadband has succeeded at providing low cost physical infrastructure and even ISP services without needing any tax money. Badly run ones have been financial disasters wasting both fees and municipal funds. Which honestly is pretty much the same record as most private corporations before the consolidations began leaving us with what is often a dozen monopolies spread across the country who never directly compete.
we are all invisible unless we choose otherwise
Where I live (in Europe), the government has very little to do with providing internet. The infrastructure is all privately owned. The only trick is that owners of the infrastructure are required to lease bandwidth to their competitors, and charge a reasonable fee for it. That means that a new competitor doesn't need a large amount of capital to invest in huge amounts of infrastructure, instead they can lease a bit of capacity at wholesale prices, and set up their own internet business.
Government owned utilities using tax dollars to massively build out last-mile solutions do not have a "..Fiduciary responsibility to maximize shareholder value."
The Swedish internet model used taxpayer money to build out a massive national network providing excellent last-mile broadband, which all private competitors are now entitled to ride over.
I remember the first time I visited Gothenburg in 2001, and people had full Video On Demand, digital cable and bundled services. Thirteen years ago.
THIS SPACE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK.