The Fibrous Future
January 4th, 2005
Categories: General
Broadband rates in the USA are already among the highest in the world — $35 to $40 a month. And that’s for relatively slow speeds of 1 to 2 megabits a second. In Japan, consumers pay about $15 a month for speeds of 30 megabits or better, notes Raul Katz, CEO of Adventis, a Boston-based consultancy.
USA Today: Bells dig in to dominate high-speed Internet realm
That paragraph really caught my attention. $15 bucks per month for 30Mbps or better?!?! Damn.
Until fiber is widely available in this country, I highly doubt there will be another real economic boom. Next generation services are dependent on the ubiquitous availability of real bandwidth, not the anemic crap that is called “broadband” today.
I want my fibre damn it. And I’m not gonna settle for oatmeal. In our area they are offering like 3M lines for $80-100. Our lack of regulation on cost in this country leads to disastrously out-of-control prices. Though other countries are smaller, and more compact, making running lines easier. Yaay suburbia.
The Bell derivatives and cable companies do seem to be content with the current (largely non-competitive) status quo. Regulatory incentives to provide fiber (or fibre) to the home are probably the only thing that will change things for the better.