Fast Internet? You May Need To Leave U.S.
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http://www.theindychannel.com/technology/13579516/detail.html[^] Okay, I need to move. Where I live I can't get cable or DSL so I am stuck with dial up. But I wasn't planning on moving out of the country, but since I read this, it's a maybe:laugh:
I have a friend over in Korea... he's just shy of homeless, no job, living out of a hostel... and still has blindingly fast wireless internet. Meanwhile, i'm paying through the nose for a service advertised as 6Mbps, but rarely approaching that in practice (and, of course, utterly pathetic upload speeds). 'Guess i better be enjoying the scenery...
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Yes, but can you blame them for doing so if that's the only legal way they can hire programmers they want at the rate they can afford?
-- Nish on sketchy hiring practices
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I have a friend over in Korea... he's just shy of homeless, no job, living out of a hostel... and still has blindingly fast wireless internet. Meanwhile, i'm paying through the nose for a service advertised as 6Mbps, but rarely approaching that in practice (and, of course, utterly pathetic upload speeds). 'Guess i better be enjoying the scenery...
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Yes, but can you blame them for doing so if that's the only legal way they can hire programmers they want at the rate they can afford?
-- Nish on sketchy hiring practices
Shog9 wrote:
I have a friend over in Korea... he's just shy of homeless, no job, living out of a hostel... and still has blindingly fast wireless internet.
One of the benefits of a highly urbanized population. It's much easier to roll out new technologies to a large fraction of your population. Sparsely populated rural areas with only a handful of customers per base point can't be upgraded as fast or to as bleeding edge hardware when they do get upgraded since it takes much longer to recover the costs with fewer customers paying for it.
-- You have to explain to them [VB coders] what you mean by "typed". their first response is likely to be something like, "Of course my code is typed. Do you think i magically project it onto the screen with the power of my mind?" --- John Simmons / outlaw programmer
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http://www.theindychannel.com/technology/13579516/detail.html[^] Okay, I need to move. Where I live I can't get cable or DSL so I am stuck with dial up. But I wasn't planning on moving out of the country, but since I read this, it's a maybe:laugh:
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Shog9 wrote:
I have a friend over in Korea... he's just shy of homeless, no job, living out of a hostel... and still has blindingly fast wireless internet.
One of the benefits of a highly urbanized population. It's much easier to roll out new technologies to a large fraction of your population. Sparsely populated rural areas with only a handful of customers per base point can't be upgraded as fast or to as bleeding edge hardware when they do get upgraded since it takes much longer to recover the costs with fewer customers paying for it.
-- You have to explain to them [VB coders] what you mean by "typed". their first response is likely to be something like, "Of course my code is typed. Do you think i magically project it onto the screen with the power of my mind?" --- John Simmons / outlaw programmer
Yup, that's pretty much the size of it. Of course, it doesn't help that your ISP is still reeling after massive accounting scandals a few years back.
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Yes, but can you blame them for doing so if that's the only legal way they can hire programmers they want at the rate they can afford?
-- Nish on sketchy hiring practices
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Shog9 wrote:
I have a friend over in Korea... he's just shy of homeless, no job, living out of a hostel... and still has blindingly fast wireless internet.
One of the benefits of a highly urbanized population. It's much easier to roll out new technologies to a large fraction of your population. Sparsely populated rural areas with only a handful of customers per base point can't be upgraded as fast or to as bleeding edge hardware when they do get upgraded since it takes much longer to recover the costs with fewer customers paying for it.
-- You have to explain to them [VB coders] what you mean by "typed". their first response is likely to be something like, "Of course my code is typed. Do you think i magically project it onto the screen with the power of my mind?" --- John Simmons / outlaw programmer
While generally true, it's not universally so. I had faster, cheaper access 5 years ago than I do now, despite a population boom in the area. Like so many things, it depends...
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
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I am a little confused at what exactly is the test as I doubt that the average user in Japan has a 61Mbit connection. Is that correct? What the heck do they pay for that service? As far as I know the fastest user service in the US is the 35Mbit/s Verizon FIOS and it costs an arm and a leg...
John
John, This is a quote from an article on the topic
In Japan, the cost of an average connection with the speed of 26 mbps costs about $22.00
Not only is that connection faster than more than 95% of the connections available in the US but its considerably less than what we pay (I live in the country and I pay $49 for a DSL connection where "sometimes" I can download at 185Kbps). Japan recently spent tons of money running fiber to the majority of the homes in the country while the vast majority (something like 95%+) in this country (US) still use the old copper wiring. The disparity is atrocious if you ask me.
"Let's face it, the average computer user has the brain of a Spider Monkey." Bill Gates
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John, This is a quote from an article on the topic
In Japan, the cost of an average connection with the speed of 26 mbps costs about $22.00
Not only is that connection faster than more than 95% of the connections available in the US but its considerably less than what we pay (I live in the country and I pay $49 for a DSL connection where "sometimes" I can download at 185Kbps). Japan recently spent tons of money running fiber to the majority of the homes in the country while the vast majority (something like 95%+) in this country (US) still use the old copper wiring. The disparity is atrocious if you ask me.
"Let's face it, the average computer user has the brain of a Spider Monkey." Bill Gates
Psycho-*Coder*-Extreme wrote:
Japan recently spent tons of money running fiber to the majority of the homes in the country
Totally untrue. They ran fiber to the curb in Osaka and parts of Tokyo and probably Nagoya. Most the country, geographically, does NOT have fiber and has no where near the access speeds mentioned.
Anyone who thinks he has a better idea of what's good for people than people do is a swine. - P.J. O'Rourke
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Psycho-*Coder*-Extreme wrote:
Japan recently spent tons of money running fiber to the majority of the homes in the country
Totally untrue. They ran fiber to the curb in Osaka and parts of Tokyo and probably Nagoya. Most the country, geographically, does NOT have fiber and has no where near the access speeds mentioned.
Anyone who thinks he has a better idea of what's good for people than people do is a swine. - P.J. O'Rourke
Hey I can only go on what is reported, don't shoot the messenger, as for the 2nd part of the post, I know people in Japan and the speed listed in that article is accurate, the internet offered there makes anything in the US look flat out silly.
"Well yes, it is an Integer, but it's a metrosexual Integer. For all we know, under all that hair gel it could be a Boolean." Tom Welch
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John, This is a quote from an article on the topic
In Japan, the cost of an average connection with the speed of 26 mbps costs about $22.00
Not only is that connection faster than more than 95% of the connections available in the US but its considerably less than what we pay (I live in the country and I pay $49 for a DSL connection where "sometimes" I can download at 185Kbps). Japan recently spent tons of money running fiber to the majority of the homes in the country while the vast majority (something like 95%+) in this country (US) still use the old copper wiring. The disparity is atrocious if you ask me.
"Let's face it, the average computer user has the brain of a Spider Monkey." Bill Gates
I read part of that and was not sure if I believed what I was reading.
John
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Come to the Netherlands, We have broadband internet for almost all people living in various parts of the country. I have 24 MBit, but I heard about Gbit internet about 200 meters from here ;P
Of course, the Netherlands is about the size of our STATE of Connecticut. Please remember the United States is the fourth largest country in the world by land area behind Russia, Canada, and China. However, even in those countries the population is relatively concentrated in one part of the country. In Russia, its the European part. In Canada, its the 100 mile strip along the U.S. border plus Edmonton. In China, it is mostly the eastern third of the country. Here, the largest concentrations of people are on the coasts but there are many major cities in the interior. (Chicago, Houston, Atlanta, Detroit, Cleveland, Dallas-Fort Worth, etc.) Plus the sprawl from the cities is much greater. In other words, the population density is much lower and the areas of higher density are spread farther apart. (This is the same reason that high speed rail is not as cost-effective as it is in Europe or Japan.) Even if you only cover the cities, theres still a lot of miles of cable to connect them. Then, there's the rural areas that comprise 95% of the land area of the country but only contain 20-30% of the people. (60-90 million) The best that rural users can hope for, at this point is cable modem, DSL, or pricey (and relatively slow) satellite service. I'm sure it will come, but if all you're willing to pay is $30-50 a month, it will take some time. But, in my experience, once I get above 256Kbits/sec, web surfing is about identical. It is only in the downloads that speed matters because the web sites are usually the ones slowing us down. So, to those of you in other countries that have double-digit megabit/sec internet access, enjoy it, you're a fortunate minority on the planet.
Andrew C. Eisenberg Nashville, TN, USA (a.k.a. Music City USA) (Yes Virginia, there are rock and roll stations in Nashville! :laugh:)