Why Switzerland has 25 Gbit internet and America doesn't

Post by Aspos » Mon, Apr 06, 2026, 2:11 AM UTC

wat10000 wrote: post #142

tjwebbnorfolk wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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!

Rich is a key attribute here. Tiny, not really. The key is dense . That makes terrestrial connections cheaper. A country with the population of the US and the richness and density of Switzerland would be just as capable of building out high speed internet connections. It would have ~38x the population of Switzerland, cost ~38x more to wire, and have ~38x the resources with which to do it. Incidentally, the northeast…

Post by nothinkjustai » Mon, Apr 06, 2026, 2:15 AM UTC

simoncion wrote: post #188

nothinkjustai wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No they don’t. What happens is that people want to manipulate the market for a variety of reasons, so they do that, and then really really smart people come along later and try to claim that those manipulators weren’t actually the problem but the solution! It is completely backwards, like reversing cause and effect. It’s like blaming a person for standing in the path of a bullet instead of the one firing the gun. Wan…

> No they don’t. Yes, they do. Price competition and R&D are expensive activities. Businesses seek to maximize profit, as they're not charities or governmental entities. Neutralizing competition (whether by eliminating it or colluding with it) and entering into private agreements with suppliers and vendors to box out any potential upstarts increases profit. Another fine way for a monopoly or cartel to increase profit…

Post by hrimfaxi » Mon, Apr 06, 2026, 2:20 AM UTC

irishcoffee wrote: post #132

hrimfaxi wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand this line of thinking. The spreading of a false rumor is an example of a competitive marketplace? If this took place in a different domain wouldn't it be fraud? That it was in the public benefit seems orthogonal.

It is not fraud to claim that one is considering doing something, and publishing that information. Imagine how that would actually play out if you were right. (You’re not)

Post by userbinator » Mon, Apr 06, 2026, 2:28 AM UTC

userbinator wrote: post #54

All connections to the Internet are at some level "shared", except perhaps if you get a direct connection to one of the core routers. As others have mentioned, this is in a dense area and much closer to being in a LAN environment. The other point that I'd like to bring up is how useful is a 25G connection to your local demarcation point if your speeds to most sites will be far lower in practice because the Internet i…

Post by ceejayoz » Mon, Apr 06, 2026, 2:32 AM UTC

lava_pidgeon wrote: post #206

ceejayoz wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CA’s high speed rail isn’t high speed by European standards and it looks on the way to cancelation or significant curtailment. We can’t even manage what y’all would consider slow rail.

I don't know but Swiss isn't the only train system that works but also Spain, Italy, France. Poland has a growing better train system . The swiss system has it's advantages but it is also very expensive. It might also worth it to check them out