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Re: broadband
shauny wrote:
> Richard Kelly wrote:
>
>> "Basement" <wvandekamp@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>> news:45d4b8e8$0$329$e4fe514c@news.xs4all.nl...
>>
>>> I found this quite interesting. How are you americans thinking about
>>> this:
>>>
>>> quote Slashdot:
>>>
>>> "When It Comes To Broadband, U.S. Plays Follow The Leader says a
>>> story in IWeek. Their thesis is that, while broadband access in the
>>> United States rose from 60 million users in March 2005 to 84 million
>>> in March 2006, the US is well behind countries like England and
>>> China. Indeed, what you may not realize is that the U.S. ranks a
>>> surprisingly poor 12th in worldwide broadband access, a situation
>>> which could threaten its ability to maintain its technological lead.
>>> The federal government is no help: the FCC has almost no data on the
>>> rate of hi-speed adoption, or of what the speed and quality of those
>>> services are. Broadband is more expensive here than in other nations,
>>> as well, almost 10 times as expensive by some estimates. The cost and
>>> poor quality of service aren't from population density, aren't from
>>> lack of interest, and are not from lack of technical know-how. So,
>>> what is holding us back?
>>
>>
>> Try living in Australia. We only just got ADSL2 (24mbps) broadband in
>> the last 12 months or so, and it is only available in capital cities
>> (and only some suburbs in those cities). This 24mbps is the maximum
>> speed - actual speeds vary greatly depending on usage in the
>> neighbourhood. The fastest ADSL the rest of us can get is 1.5mbps
>> (with some 8mbps plans now being offered, but not many). I have what
>> is considered in Australia as a hardcore plan (1.5mbps, 50 gig a month
>> download) and it costs me AU$79.95 per month (around US$63 per month).
>> If I was able to get ADSL2, this plan would be AU$89.95 for the same
>> data volume. I have been on this plan for a few years now and it is no
>> longer offered. The closest plan my ISP (one of the leaders in
>> Australia) currently offers is 1.5mbps, 25 gig download, AU$69.95. An
>> 8mbps plan is AU$99.95 per month with 40 gig included download (which
>> I would chew through in a couple of days at that speed).
>>
>> Then there are the people that can't get ADSL at all (more than about
>> 5km from the nearest exchange). Australia is very sparsely populated
>> across a great distance, so there are a lot of households in this
>> situation. They might be able to get wireless or ISDN, but the
>> majority have dialup, which is worse than being taken roughly from
>> behind by Hitler's corpse.
>>
>> At the end of the day, if you live in a capital city in Australia you
>> can get decent broadband but at a hefty price.
>>
>> What's the state of affairs in other countries? What type of plan are
>> you all on?
>>
>
> NZ is *thinking* about getting ADSL2. I'm on "unlimited" (yeah, right)
> with a 20gb cap for $NZ60.
> Maximum realistic download speeds are around 15-20kb/s
> All p2p traffic is disabled, but I think that they are only blocking
> common data ports, cos I can still download stuff.
I can download around 50k on a regular file. Which pales in comparison
to my 300 - 600K on a regular file from the cable line I had.
--
Knowledge is power, unfortunately nobody cares about what I know!
"And remember: two thirds of happiness...is penis"
-Dennis Miller
.:s|0|z:.
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