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United States Broadband speed ranks 12th according to SpeedTest Global Index

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Re: United States Broadband speed ranks 12th according to SpeedTest Global Index

#91

Post by 0xcde4c3db »

hunterb123 wrote: post #25
setpatchaddress wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the usual argument against doing large infrastructure in the USA, and I think it’s kind of missing the point: the USA also has much larger financial and physical resources than those countries. We also have counterarguments: we have a universal electrical network. We built a large railroad network across the entire country. We have an interstate highway system reaching every continental state (and with “inter…

Railroads, highways, and power/cable lines all go hand in hand. It's an amazing network and they were all built a long time ago with little improvement. The problem is shoveling money to other "universal" slush funds while ignoring actual infrastructure for decades. ISPs should have been a utility and they should treat it like Texas treats its grid. Have a company that manages the actual lines, and have multiple prov…

Something like this was actually tried in the '90s for local phone circuits ("local loop unbundling"). As far as I know, it basically worked and is technically still policy, but the type of access mandated is no longer competitive for most purposes.

Re: United States Broadband speed ranks 12th according to SpeedTest Global Index

#92

Post by vel0city »

jeffbee wrote: post #89
vel0city wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Urban" in the US can still be quite different from "urban" of Europe or other places around the world. I live in a really close suburb of one of the biggest cities in the US. I technically live in an "urban" area, and places further out from the actual city that are less dense are still considered "urban". The population density here is ~4,000 people/mi^2. A similar comparison to Paris location-wise would be somethi…

"Our urbanized places are garbage" is a completely different statement from "our country is large". One of them is circumstance and the other is self-inflicted.

Whether or not "our urbanized places are garbage" is very much subjective. I don't consider the place I live to be garbage, personally I prefer it to living in a place as dense as Paris.

Whether you think US "urban" areas are garbage or not, your statement doesn't change the fact that "urban" in the US versus "urban" elsewhere can be pretty radically different. Saying "more than 80% of Americans live in urbanized areas, the same fraction as France, Norway, Spain, and the world generally" is kind of comparing apples and oranges. Yeah sure 80% of the population lives in locations labeled "urban", but the average densities of those urban areas in Europe are much more dense than the US. I'd imagine there are plenty of places in the US classified as "urban" which would easily compare to the densities of "rural" areas in Europe.

I do agree with the idea that a partial part of the problem is a lack of focus on infrastructure spending compared to other budgets such as the military. Hopefully that will change soon.

Re: United States Broadband speed ranks 12th according to SpeedTest Global Index

#93

Post by gumby »

SteveGerencser wrote: post #33
Arubis wrote: post #22

That’s…not terrible? Getting broadband in rural America is rough, and the permissive atmosphere for monopolistic behavior by ISPs is maddening. Pricing for internet access is way worse than in East Asia or western and central Europe. Some folks can’t get real broadband at all, and they’re disproportionally lower down on the socioeconomic spectrum. That’s not fair. These issues are real. But overall, 12th sounds…prett…

We moved to a small rural community where a T1 isn't even available. I can get a 3Mb DSL connection or satellite. I have both because I need to redundancy. I did call to see what it would cost to have 'real' internet brought out here. They were happy to bring out a fiber line from the nearest town to serve our area. But it was going to cost me around $5k/mo with a 3 year contract for a 10Mb dedicated line. It's cheap…

> and they have done nothing but pocket the money.

Oh what slander. Verizon, for example, has been paying that cash out as dividends.

Re: United States Broadband speed ranks 12th according to SpeedTest Global Index

#94

Post by vidanay »

thehappypm wrote: post #24
smoldesu wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in a semi-rural area, on a dirt road off the highway with 15-20 other neighbors on our half-mile stretch of street. Until Starlink hit, the best internet we could get was 500kbps unmetered, and maybe 4mbps metered if you were lucky . It was genuinely that bad.

I think you're highlighting the huge challenge of American broadband. Every dirt road off every highway that has a dozen or two homes needs broadband -- that is an immense amount of infrastructure that's needed.

Do they have electricity? I'm betting "yes". This means there are either above ground poles that fiber can be hung from, or if it was constructed in the last 30 years, the ground was opened for trenching, and a fiber should have been buried along side the power (wou'da, cou'da, shou'da). Dig once policies and pole sharing policies have been fought tooth and nail by the entrenched utilities.

Re: United States Broadband speed ranks 12th according to SpeedTest Global Index

#95

Post by WarOnPrivacy »

throwawayboise wrote: post #63
SteveGerencser wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I prepaid for Starlink 4 or 5 months ago and just waiting for my turn to get it. We did talk about setting up a community point to point system but the 'old guys' that run the area are more interested in getting (forcing) more people on to 'city' water than anything actually useful because city water fees are the only thing keeping this town alive.

If good broadband is so important to you why did to move to an area where it's not available?

It's common for folks to have tightly constrained moving choices.

We recently moved into our one and only choice. We beat lottery odds to get it and it was one more choice than most here have (doz-100s applicants for each listing).

Re: United States Broadband speed ranks 12th according to SpeedTest Global Index

#96

Post by WarOnPrivacy »

chadash wrote: post #31

1 Singapore 262.20 2 Hong Kong (SAR) 254.40 3 Monaco 242.89 4 Switzerland 222.00 5 Thailand 221.00 6 Romania 217.91 7 South Korea 216.67 8 Denmark 216.13 9 Chile 209.83 10 France 201.61 11 Hungary 201.55 12 United States 199.00 First of all, Singapore, Hong Kong and Monaco really can't be compared to the US. Two of them are wealthy city-states and Monaco is very small (and wealthy). Once you get to #4 Switzerland, th…

12 United States 199.00 down / 72.7 up

I'm fairly skeptical of this figure, with most sq mi of the US unable to get anything like that.

Further, the typical upload speed for a 200Mbit cable connection is ~10Mbit. I can't see enough symmetric providers to skew the avg upload numbers that far.

Re: United States Broadband speed ranks 12th according to SpeedTest Global Index

#97

Post by worker767424 »

SteveGerencser wrote: post #33
Arubis wrote: post #22

That’s…not terrible? Getting broadband in rural America is rough, and the permissive atmosphere for monopolistic behavior by ISPs is maddening. Pricing for internet access is way worse than in East Asia or western and central Europe. Some folks can’t get real broadband at all, and they’re disproportionally lower down on the socioeconomic spectrum. That’s not fair. These issues are real. But overall, 12th sounds…prett…

We moved to a small rural community where a T1 isn't even available. I can get a 3Mb DSL connection or satellite. I have both because I need to redundancy. I did call to see what it would cost to have 'real' internet brought out here. They were happy to bring out a fiber line from the nearest town to serve our area. But it was going to cost me around $5k/mo with a 3 year contract for a 10Mb dedicated line. It's cheap…

> a T1 isn't even available. I can get a 3Mb DSL connection

3Mbps DSL is faster than a T1. That speed also suggests you're 3-4 miles from a CO, so it's not that rural. 3 miles might even make a fiber run possible if you're willing to pay.

Re: United States Broadband speed ranks 12th according to SpeedTest Global Index

#98

Post by ls612 »

clairity wrote: post #82
chadash wrote: post #31

1 Singapore 262.20 2 Hong Kong (SAR) 254.40 3 Monaco 242.89 4 Switzerland 222.00 5 Thailand 221.00 6 Romania 217.91 7 South Korea 216.67 8 Denmark 216.13 9 Chile 209.83 10 France 201.61 11 Hungary 201.55 12 United States 199.00 First of all, Singapore, Hong Kong and Monaco really can't be compared to the US. Two of them are wealthy city-states and Monaco is very small (and wealthy). Once you get to #4 Switzerland, th…

note that we don’t need 50mbps (and certainly not 200) for most homes/families either. 25mbps comfortably supports 3 1080p streams with room left over for web, email, and other apps.

I was on 25mbps during lockdown with my parents for a few months and it was very painful. You probably don’t need the 500 I get now but 25 is not good.

Re: United States Broadband speed ranks 12th according to SpeedTest Global Index

#99

Post by WarOnPrivacy »

clairity wrote: post #82
chadash wrote: post #31

1 Singapore 262.20 2 Hong Kong (SAR) 254.40 3 Monaco 242.89 4 Switzerland 222.00 5 Thailand 221.00 6 Romania 217.91 7 South Korea 216.67 8 Denmark 216.13 9 Chile 209.83 10 France 201.61 11 Hungary 201.55 12 United States 199.00 First of all, Singapore, Hong Kong and Monaco really can't be compared to the US. Two of them are wealthy city-states and Monaco is very small (and wealthy). Once you get to #4 Switzerland, th…

note that we don’t need 50mbps (and certainly not 200) for most homes/families either. 25mbps comfortably supports 3 1080p streams with room left over for web, email, and other apps.

Even ideal, uninterrupted deliveries don't happen in a steady stream. Data arrives in bursts. I've seen 25Mbit connections choke on far less.

God help anyone with a 25Mbit/down cable connection who tries sync their media to the cloud. That Real life also commonly includes gaming. Steam updates alone max'd out our 500Mb connection.

Re: United States Broadband speed ranks 12th according to SpeedTest Global Index

#100

Post by lucian1900 »

Aromasin wrote: post #72

What I find interesting about this is how embarrassingly low the United Kingdom is considering its history as a telecom power house. In my eyes, and maybe I'm reading this data wrong, it really showcases the devastating impact the privatization of our services has had on our country. We have basically stagnated on speeds since the early 2000's. I still have the same speeds I had 10 years ago (100Mb/S with no opportun…

You’re entirely right about the cause. BT even had a plan to roll out fibre quite early, but Thatcher’s neoliberal government cancelled it in favour of privatisation.
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