Want to get on your Internet Service Provider's bad side? Call them up and ask them, "Why is it that in Japan, they can get a 160Mbps internet connection to their homes for USD$60 per month and we can't?"If you even get anyone at your ISP to seriously tackle that question, the first thing they'll probably do is argue that they couldn't possibly offer internet for that price because of the economies of scale. It would be hard to argue that, because it's very true that Japan packs more people per square kilometre than the US or Canada ever will. So it is much easier to charge less money per user when a smaller, denser infrastructure is serving many more people.
But what you can easily argue is that since our infrastructure is already in place, it would cost very little to upgrade the current antiquated equipment (or equipment settings) to offer speeds at least 10 times what are offered now, using the same cabling that already exists.
In case your ISP argues that Japan is a unique case, you could mention the 100 Mbps internet connection in South Korea for less than USD$50 per month. Or the 24Mbps connection in Finland for USD$66. Or the 20Mbps offering in Australia for USD$44.
For comparison, in Canada, Telus offers 10Mbps for $43 per month. Shaw does offer 100Mbps.... at $158 per month. No, that's not a typo.
2 comments:
Even if we were to be offered the 100+Mbps connections that other countries have, the RIAA and other industry groups would argue that it only serves illegally use. As if legitimate uses such as facebook require that much bandwidth!
And here's my ad: http://www.renoraters.com
Shameless advertiser!
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