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England just made gigabit internet a legal requirement for new homes

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Re: England just made gigabit internet a legal requirement for new homes

#21

Post by mperham »

xbmcuser wrote: post #10

I think this comes across as shocking to Americans but the thing is the rest of the world treats internet as a utility so most governments try to get cheap and fast internet for as large a portion of the population as possible. Where as US cities and towns are stuck under its isp corporate monopolies.

Yep, it doesn't need to be treated as a utility, there just needs to be competition. Our Xfinity internet was locked at 150 Mbps for years until the local DSL provider (Centurylink) rolled out gigabit fiber. Suddenly Xfinity started offering gigabit also.

Capitalism doesn't work if the market is captured by rent-seekers. Unfortunately this describes most American industries these days.

Re: England just made gigabit internet a legal requirement for new homes

#22

Post by m000 »

drbeast wrote: post #13

Wonderful, let's make new homes even more expensive! And to those who are downvoting this, every building code requirement like this jacks up the price further. Not everyone is a SWE with a TC of $250k+ you over privileged ninnies.

I can sell you a nifty cave, and I'll throw in my top-of-the-line 56k modem for free if you want to avoid the price jackups.

Re: England just made gigabit internet a legal requirement for new homes

#23

Post by criddell »

ejb999 wrote: post #6
_fat_santa wrote: post #3

How i understand is is Gigabit is two parts: the first part is your home, router, etc supporting the connection speeds. The other is the infrastructure to deliver the gigabit to your home. I can see a regulation that mandates that you wire any new residences up so they can support gigabit, but how is this going to work if the municipality / ISP does not offer it? Not sure about what Gigabit rollout in the UK looks li…

>>I can see a regulation that mandates that you wire any new residences up so they can support gigabit, but how is this going to work if the municipality / ISP does not offer it? If read the article, it says the cap is 2000 pounds, so the developer must do all the make-ready work in the house to support 1G internet, but they only have to actually connect to the fastest option available - and then only if the total co…

The fastest option available might be 5G cellular modem. From a builder’s perspective, it’s probably also the cheapest.

Re: England just made gigabit internet a legal requirement for new homes

#24

Post by awestroke »

Nifty3929 wrote: post #19

Instead of what? Everything comes instead of something else. Whatever effort and resources are spent adding gigabit to new homes will mean fewer homes, less food, shoes, medicine, natural gas, cars or whatever. Many people will be celebrating faster internet speeds for those who purchase these new homes, but it's hard to see what goes missing when it's a little here and there from across the economy.

Instead of a slightly slightly cheaper but much worse fiber connection

Re: England just made gigabit internet a legal requirement for new homes

#25

Post by drstewart »

xbmcuser wrote: post #10

I think this comes across as shocking to Americans but the thing is the rest of the world treats internet as a utility so most governments try to get cheap and fast internet for as large a portion of the population as possible. Where as US cities and towns are stuck under its isp corporate monopolies.

[flagged]

Re: England just made gigabit internet a legal requirement for new homes

#26

Post by pwinnski »

Nifty3929 wrote: post #19

Instead of what? Everything comes instead of something else. Whatever effort and resources are spent adding gigabit to new homes will mean fewer homes, less food, shoes, medicine, natural gas, cars or whatever. Many people will be celebrating faster internet speeds for those who purchase these new homes, but it's hard to see what goes missing when it's a little here and there from across the economy.

It is not at all clear that the size of the metaphorical pie is as fixed as you claim.

Ideally gigabit internet will come "instead of" a few extra pounds of profit in the pockets of the builders. More likely, gigabit internet will come "instead of" a few extra pounds remaining in the pockets of the home-buyers. It's also possible that this will just prompt companies already installing equipment for new neighborhoods to install the reasonable piece of kit, rather than the cheapest piece of kit possible, at an added extra expense of nearly zero.

Re: England just made gigabit internet a legal requirement for new homes

#27

Post by grammers »

xbmcuser wrote: post #10

I think this comes across as shocking to Americans but the thing is the rest of the world treats internet as a utility so most governments try to get cheap and fast internet for as large a portion of the population as possible. Where as US cities and towns are stuck under its isp corporate monopolies.

Yet, it is a utility by now. Who could live or work without it? A country cripples its economy in the long run if they do not realize that.

Re: England just made gigabit internet a legal requirement for new homes

#28

Post by ledauphin »

Nifty3929 wrote: post #19

Instead of what? Everything comes instead of something else. Whatever effort and resources are spent adding gigabit to new homes will mean fewer homes, less food, shoes, medicine, natural gas, cars or whatever. Many people will be celebrating faster internet speeds for those who purchase these new homes, but it's hard to see what goes missing when it's a little here and there from across the economy.

economies are complex. it may be "instead of spending 3x as much to retrofit all these new houses in 10 years when everyone else has gigabit".

Sometimes the "economic" decision right now is just punting significantly higher cost of rework down the road.

Re: England just made gigabit internet a legal requirement for new homes

#29

Post by ed25519FUUU »

It’s extremely challenging advocating for this in the USA because most people have no idea the difference between upload and download, and how data caps play into it.

You can get gigabit 5G in many areas but it’s manifestly a different animal than symmetrical gigabit fiber internet without caps.

Re: England just made gigabit internet a legal requirement for new homes

#30

Post by baq »

mperham wrote: post #21
xbmcuser wrote: post #10

I think this comes across as shocking to Americans but the thing is the rest of the world treats internet as a utility so most governments try to get cheap and fast internet for as large a portion of the population as possible. Where as US cities and towns are stuck under its isp corporate monopolies.

Yep, it doesn't need to be treated as a utility, there just needs to be competition. Our Xfinity internet was locked at 150 Mbps for years until the local DSL provider (Centurylink) rolled out gigabit fiber. Suddenly Xfinity started offering gigabit also. Capitalism doesn't work if the market is captured by rent-seekers. Unfortunately this describes most American industries these days.

to be precise: monopoly is peak laissez-faire capitalism; regulation is what makes this local maximum easy to get out of instead of dealing with an East India Company situation.
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