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Why Switzerland has 25 Gbit internet and America doesn't
171–180 of 726 posts
Re: Why Switzerland has 25 Gbit internet and America doesn't
#172In my small island community, I participated in a municipal committee whose mandate was to bring proper broadband to the island. Although two telecom duopolies already served the community, one of them had undersea fiber but zero fiber to the home (DSL remains the only option), whereas the other used a 670 Mbps wireless microwave link for backhaul and delivery via coaxial cable. And pricing? Insanely expensive for ei…
Either side of the spectre lies enshittification: - more competition comes with margin squeezing and cheapest source for service or goods - less competition brings the monopoly, the dream of any capitalist (owner, not user). Either way comes enshittification, and there's no middle balance, it drifts towards one of the sides always.
we still had luxury goods without monopolies, so I think I'll take more competition please.
Re: Why Switzerland has 25 Gbit internet and America doesn't
#173why is it a lie? a natural monopoly doesn't bar other entrance, it's just naturally difficult, like space travel. also, unpopular comment but who cares? my Internet does everything I want it to and I'd wager that the price from the swiss government is highly subsidized. A market means a meeting of supply and demand, it's possible that currently the swiss speed is overboard for most users.
Re: Why Switzerland has 25 Gbit internet and America doesn't
#174Re: Why Switzerland has 25 Gbit internet and America doesn't
#175Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have a gentle rule, which is "if you can do it in one place, it is probably possible to do it in a second". The Swiss are not a separate species.
There are a lot of things you can do in a rich, tiny, homogenous country that you can't do in a enormous, diverse country. If my house were a country, I'd be in the top 0.1% of household internet speeds compared to other countries. Obviously everyone should be just like me!
> There are a lot of things you can do in a rich, tiny, homogenous country that you can't do in an enormous, diverse country.
US states are little islands entirely capable of doing things like building infrastructure. There is no excuse for our states and their lack of movement, certainly not “the entire country is just tooooo big. whoa is us.” nonsense.
Re: Why Switzerland has 25 Gbit internet and America doesn't
#176Earlier quoted context omitted.
Western free market doesn’t create monopolies. Where did you get that idea? The only place monopolies tend to emerge is heavily regulated areas that allow for regulatory capture (laying fiber is a great example of this).
> Western free market doesn’t create monopolies. To quote myself: "the Western-style free market is very keen on creating and maintaining monopolies" Guess who's the highly influential investor, with strong connection to the WH who said the following: "Competition is for losers". This sums up pretty well what the free market is keen on.
It is well known that individual businessmen often want to reduce competition, because it's best for them. That is why the government's important role in the free market is to promote competition. But just because the market is imperfect and can be captured without the government making sure that people play fair, does not mean that the free market is "a lie" as TFA claims. It means that it's imperfect, as are all human endeavors.
Re: Why Switzerland has 25 Gbit internet and America doesn't
#177Earlier quoted context omitted.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-says-not... > President Donald Trump on Wednesday said it’s “not possible” for the federal government to fund Medicare, Medicaid and child care costs, arguing that it should be up to the states to “take care” of those programs while the federal government focuses on military spending.
I guess I'm pretty confused on what your point is here? Universal Healthcare would be a new program in the US that would see a drastic tax increase, in that our healthcare spending currently going to insurance companies would instead go to a new federal agency. The amount of money companies and citizens spend on it may or may not also increase, but your quote has basically nothing to do with that.
That’s sleight of hand. “Ooooh! A tax increase! Scary!”
If I can pay $100 in tax to save $200 in premiums and copays, that’s a win. The US is an extreme outlier in healthcare spend.
Re: Why Switzerland has 25 Gbit internet and America doesn't
#178I get 10g symmetric in Austin for $150/m. I had Cox before, and it was $180ish for 1g down and ~50mb up. Things are improving!
Re: Why Switzerland has 25 Gbit internet and America doesn't
#179Re: Why Switzerland has 25 Gbit internet and America doesn't
#180I'm in Zurich and I have 1Gb. My provider is offering higher for no additional cost - I'd have to put in a new modem/fiber-to-Ethernet adapter. However my home network is cat-5e and my switch is also 1Gb so I don't bother - it's pointless.
I get 1G (in the US) and am in a similar boat - I could pay for 8G, and my house is even wired for 10G. But..... all my network equipment is 1G, we rarely saturate it, and I don't want to shell out like a thousand dollars to replace my router, three managed switches, and three AP.
Actually $1k might not even do it all, but I could probably get the switches and router for just under $1k and leave the WiFi at 1G.
I suspect my 1G costs a bit more than yours though