Why Switzerland has 25 gbit internet and America doesn't • Hacker News Board

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

#461

Post by NoPicklez » Sun, Jul 05, 2026, 11:55 PM UTC

computerdork wrote: post #294

NoPicklez wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep completely agree. I lived with about 5 people and our internet was 500mbps and it was more than enough. Looking at the network monitor the only need for anything really above 100mbps was when people wanted to download something. For daily needs, surfing, browsing, the odd download you don't need a lot. And that's with everyone streaming, scrolling, gaming etc concurrently.

Totally agree - having been telling this to friends for years, to no avail. Btw, what network monitor are you using? Was it just a diagnostic tool in your router's admin page? Or is it something special like dd-wrt? Because seems like it's kind of hit or miss if a router's stock admin includes a reliable network monitor.

Using just the inbuilt traffic monitor in the Ubiquiti Unifi equipment, works well!

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

#462

Post by numlock86 » Mon, Jul 06, 2026, 9:28 AM UTC

ironbound wrote: post #382

numlock86 wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Some in have X, while other friends in have Y Cool. What's your message here, though? I got 10GBit/s down and 1Gbit/s up fiber in a medium size city in Germany as a non-enterprise customer. I even went to buy a capable router and SFP+ network cards for our main PCs and NAS to be able to enjoy it fully. A friend in Poland (close to the border near Cottbus) doesn't have an internet line at all and always relied on mo…

The point is your main city is holding back having faster internet for average citizens

Since when are "main cities" the benchmark for anything but demographic development?

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

#463

Post by computerdork » Mon, Jul 06, 2026, 9:49 PM UTC

NoPicklez wrote: post #461

computerdork wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Totally agree - having been telling this to friends for years, to no avail. Btw, what network monitor are you using? Was it just a diagnostic tool in your router's admin page? Or is it something special like dd-wrt? Because seems like it's kind of hit or miss if a router's stock admin includes a reliable network monitor.

Using just the inbuilt traffic monitor in the Ubiquiti Unifi equipment, works well!

Thanks for the info:)

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

#464

Post by qingcharles » Wed, Jul 08, 2026, 5:51 AM UTC

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.

When I was living in the city of Chicago only a couple of years ago the best wired connection I could get was 1.5Mbps AT&T (the tech said it might push 3Mbps if I was lucky, but would only guarantee the slower speed).

Comcast said they'd run a cable for $71,000 as long as I agreed to a multi-year $800/month contract on top.

Ended up with a $40/month T-Mobile 5G hub which got me ~800Mbps.