Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why Switzerland has 25 gbit internet and America doesn't

stefan.schueller.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 464 posts

Re: Why Switzerland has 25 gbit internet and America doesn't

#61

Post by aaron695 »

wisty wrote: post #24
kyralis wrote: post #4

The article does not include the word "density" at all. Switzerland has 2.5x the population density that the US does. I absolutely believe that US regulation choices encourage telecom monopolies and suppresses service in the US, but it's impossible to make a credible argument for that without acknowledging the density challenges that the majority of the US (geographically) faces.

As an Australian it's hilarious to hear that. We have less than 10% the density of the USA. And yeah, we blame everything on density too, even though 90% of the country is a desert with noone in it (so no need to lay cable or build roads there), and we are one of the most urbanised countries in the word (IIRC most of the population lives in 3 cities).

[dead]

Re: Why Switzerland has 25 gbit internet and America doesn't

#62

Post by fl4regun »

I gotta be honest here, my building recently (within the past 5 years) got access to fibre internet, I initially chose the option to go for the 3 gigabit package, after a few years I realized nothing I am downloading actually needs this speed. And almost nothing actually supports it either. I downgraded to the 1 gig service half a year ago and I don't miss it.

Re: Why Switzerland has 25 gbit internet and America doesn't

#63

Post by danpalmer »

loeg wrote: post #31
mmaunder wrote: post #21

25 gig is still expensive for consumers to configure end to end.

Right. US consumers don't want 25 gig.

But the article does point out that 1G plans are very widely available at low prices. US consumers would love that but it's not available anywhere near as widely as in Switzerland.

Re: Why Switzerland has 25 gbit internet and America doesn't

#64

Post by kamranjon »

rmunn wrote: post #18
kyralis wrote: post #4

The article does not include the word "density" at all. Switzerland has 2.5x the population density that the US does. I absolutely believe that US regulation choices encourage telecom monopolies and suppresses service in the US, but it's impossible to make a credible argument for that without acknowledging the density challenges that the majority of the US (geographically) faces.

It appears the author lives in Germany. In my experience, Europeans who haven't visited the US (I don't know if he has or not) often have a hard time grasping just how HUGE the country is. It literally spans an entire continent east to west. In Europe, you can usually drive to another country's border, or the coast, within 4-6 hours (sometimes more depending on where you are). In parts of America, you can drive for 2…

It takes longer to drive the length of Sweden than it does the length of California.

Re: Why Switzerland has 25 gbit internet and America doesn't

#65

Post by arthurofbabylon »

not_your_vase wrote: post #32
trynumber9 wrote: post #5

I guess they don't bother using Speedtest in Switzerland, as the average speed seems about the same as the US: https://www.speedtest.net/global-index Must be a sampling bias or something.

You know, in Switzerland there is a thing, that if a product or service has the name "Swiss" in its name, then it can be sold for any price regardless of quality - and it will fly off the shelves. I know it sounds ridiculous, but it's true. Swisscom is the biggest ISP in Switzerland - they charge high prices for very slow internet. But they have the word "Swiss" in their name, so it's okay to sell 100 Mbps connection…

There really is this bias — it’s crazy. Not just the name “Swiss,” but allusions to the Swiss flag, Swiss typography, other Swiss branding. It almost looks like some of the products are state run.

(Also, the internet connection actually is phenomenally good.)

Re: Why Switzerland has 25 gbit internet and America doesn't

#66

Post by pottertheotter »

oceanplexian wrote: post #49

We had this in Utah for over a decade now (Approx. 24% of the State) via Utopia, congrats to Switzerland on finally catching up. I believe 10G is around $200/month and you can select from a dozen or so ISPs on the other end. If you were really gung-ho about proving something to this annoying blogger I'm sure you could convince one of the mom and pop ISPs on the network to throw a 100G optic on both ends. Unlike Switz…

I don’t think Utopia lets you buy it now? In the past you could.

Re: Why Switzerland has 25 gbit internet and America doesn't

#68

Post by danpalmer »

yawnxyz wrote: post #13

should really look at the Australian system... it's not really a free market there and the internet is awful

The Australian system is much better than the US system, even with 1/10th the country-level density. The internet here is generally faster and cheaper than the suburban US, with a similar system to Switzerland.

Re: Why Switzerland has 25 gbit internet and America doesn't

#69

Post by quickthrowman »

rurban wrote: post #20
kyralis wrote: post #4

The article does not include the word "density" at all. Switzerland has 2.5x the population density that the US does. I absolutely believe that US regulation choices encourage telecom monopolies and suppresses service in the US, but it's impossible to make a credible argument for that without acknowledging the density challenges that the majority of the US (geographically) faces.

The higher the density, the more problematic to dig up the streets to bury the fibre lines. And US streets are much wider to dig the lines. I've seen city-level street works in the US and they are incredibly slow compared to national highway work, or street work in Europe. Like 10x slower. And getting the permissions? Impossible

You don’t need to dig up streets to install fiber underground.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directional_boring

Re: Why Switzerland has 25 gbit internet and America doesn't

#70

Post by [deleted] »

bhhaskin wrote: post #54
oceanplexian wrote: post #49

We had this in Utah for over a decade now (Approx. 24% of the State) via Utopia, congrats to Switzerland on finally catching up. I believe 10G is around $200/month and you can select from a dozen or so ISPs on the other end. If you were really gung-ho about proving something to this annoying blogger I'm sure you could convince one of the mom and pop ISPs on the network to throw a 100G optic on both ends. Unlike Switz…

That's great for Utah, but most other places in the US don't have a system like that and are stuck with one maybe two ISPs.

[deleted]
Post reply on HN