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Why Switzerland has 25 gbit internet and America doesn't

stefan.schueller.net

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

#391

Post by [deleted] »

microtonal wrote: post #155
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.

That says as much about socioeconomics (price sensitivity, laws that prohibit calling for upselling, etc.) as actual speed. E.g. in my country, the last time I looked over 95% had a fiber connection to home and the major providers offer 1Gbit (for connections still on AON) or 4 to 8Gbit (on XGS-PON). Yet, our average is still a mid 230Mbit. Why? People sticking with cable internet out of inertia, people sticking with…

[deleted]

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

#392

Post by Turskarama »

mrheosuper wrote: post #333
Turskarama wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> - The United States is 85 times larger than Switzerland. The entire country of Switzerland is the size of a small US state. Covering the US with broadband is much harder than Switzerland. I see this argument come up a lot with regards to all kinds of infrastructure, and the thing is it simply _isn't true_. What matters is population density, GDP per capita, geography, and will. A countries size doesn't matter since…

> A countries size doesn't matter since twice the area will, all things being equal It will never be both objectively and subjectively equal. Even the geographic is already difference, the weather, then there is people, wealth, etc.

Yes but all of those things are independent of the size of the country, which is the point.

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

#393

Post by arthurofbabylon »

lava_pidgeon wrote: post #332
arthurofbabylon wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The author is Swiss – your ad hominem attach fails twice. And again, I'll direct you to original point of my above comment and a point made in the essay: if you want to be effective you'll need to look past ideology to see the actually working dynamics of the system. There is no doubt that the Swiss internet service provision system is superior to the US and Germany – no doubt. The essay explains why, an essay you ar…

Ok and you couldn't get my argument: Why not Rumania, South Korea? These countries have also a great quality of internet. On mobile Poland, France and Austria? This is also a difference between an ideologicopinion piece with a "Ive told you so" and "Markets are bad " to an scientific review.

I'm sure the analysis could be expanded – why don't you give your try at an essay? If you write it, I'll read it.

How much should the essay be expanded? Surely we don't want a 1:1 scale model of reality. We probably should not factor in the conductivity of water and compare against the cost of 1 liter of milk; although if I wanted to attack the integrity of the essay I might lament those factors' absence.

Snark aside, I like that the author chose to compare Switzerland, Germany, and the US. It elegantly illustrated the similarities and differences.

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

#394

Post by AnthonyMouse »

SkiFire13 wrote: post #386
AnthonyMouse wrote: post #330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Population density is the thing people are talking about when they say that. It's 6 times higher in Switzerland than in the US.

Density is not the correct measure here because empty land decreases density but doesn't need to be covered. What matters is how much the population is clustered.

But that makes it even worse because a lot of Switzerland is entirely unoccupied mountains whereas millions of people live in places like Kansas and Nebraska and expect to have internet access.

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

#396

Post by Waterluvian »

Scoundreller wrote: post #116
Waterluvian wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually curious what you can get in NYC. I’m getting 5/5gbps for $100 CAD in what qualifies as “rural Canada” for tax reasons. But in Toronto there was 10/10gbps for $30.

> But in Toronto there was 10/10gbps for $30 Who? What? Where? When?

Beanfield if you call and ask. It was years ago so they probably changed it a little for new customers.

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

#397

Post by mlrtime »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #394
SkiFire13 wrote: post #386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Density is not the correct measure here because empty land decreases density but doesn't need to be covered. What matters is how much the population is clustered.

But that makes it even worse because a lot of Switzerland is entirely unoccupied mountains whereas millions of people live in places like Kansas and Nebraska and expect to have internet access.

And they do have it, but it does not need to be 25 gbps. Even if they had access to it, they wouldn't/shouldn't pay for it.

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

#398

Post by mlrtime »

taveras wrote: post #292
colechristensen wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wrong, there are scaling problems. Have you ever worked at both a very large and very small company? Were things that were easy at small companies much harder at large ones?

It's a false equivalence to compare working in a company to have the same scaling problems as implementing policies to set up broadband infrastructure.

Not really at all.

Taking politics out of it. If you wanted to start a 25gbps project today, who do you think could get it done quicker. A small local municipality with a few network engineers. Or getting a Federal agency to do it?

My money is on the municipality.

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

#399

Post by AnthonyMouse »

mlrtime wrote: post #397
AnthonyMouse wrote: post #394

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But that makes it even worse because a lot of Switzerland is entirely unoccupied mountains whereas millions of people live in places like Kansas and Nebraska and expect to have internet access.

And they do have it, but it does not need to be 25 gbps. Even if they had access to it, they wouldn't/shouldn't pay for it.

Which of the things you said don't also apply to the people in Zurich?

Also, if you say people in Kansas don't need fiber then you have to expect that to get averaged in. The population density in California is less than half what it is in Switzerland. Only 10% of US states have a higher population density than Switzerland and those states represent less than 10% of the US population (because of those 5 states the one with the largest land area is Maryland).

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

#400

Post by mlrtime »

guiambros wrote: post #173
Aurornis wrote: post #161

This article came up before. It's heavy on the clickbait, if you couldn't guess from the title. Some important points that they leave out: - 25G internet isn't available everywhere in Switzerland. It's just the fastest tier available in some locations. - The United States is 85 times larger than Switzerland. The entire country of Switzerland is the size of a small US state. Covering the US with broadband is much hard…

I live in NYC, one of the most densely populated cities in the world, and yet Verizon Fios 1 Gbps is my only option. I tried to upgrade to Fios 2 Gbps, but it's not available. Spectrum only goes to 200Mbps; no other providers in my area. I have no idea if Switzerland is any better, but the US situation in 2026 is appalling. If we're this bad in NYC, imagine what someone in rural America goes through.

Funny, I used to live in NYC and I was a few blocks from the Verizon datacenter downtown and one of the first to get direct fiber, FIOS. It was amazing.

Fast forward 10 years , FIOS still only has 1gbps in this area but my rural town will give me 10gbps fiber no problem. I just can't afford the router right now :)

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