Why is broadband so expensive in the US

whs said:

Commercials are the ultimate pest. I never watch a channel that has commercials (except CNN Europe and Al Jazera in English which are 'mild'). In my German setup I have appr. 100 commercial free channels of which I use 40 from 7 different countries. There are a lot of channels from more countries but those are in e.g. Farsi or Arab languages.

Different strokes for different folks. :)

whs said:

Commercials are the ultimate pest. I never watch a channel that has commercials (except CNN Europe and Al Jazera in English which are 'mild'). In my German setup I have appr. 100 commercial free channels of which I use 40 from 7 different countries. There are a lot of channels from more countries but those are in e.g. Farsi or Arab languages.

For me, I grew up with TV commercials. So, I guess I'm just used to them always being there. Ever saw the Movie Demolition Man, were commercial songs are their favor music. LOL

Don't know how TV is setup in Europe, but I'd imagine by having all those small countries so close to one another may be the reason it is like that. Group discount.

I guess they have their own satellites and can link with ours. Although, I never studied this subject.

If you learn Farsi and Arabic, you'll have forty more commercial free channels!

John

whs said:

The advantage of having TV from many countries is that you can get perspecives on current issues that come from different angles. Thus you are not stuck with what one goverment allows them to broadcast.

Europe has many countries but it is not small and the EU alone is 500 million people - if only their goverments could agree on a common direction. With the history of those 27 countries that is not easy - especially with the Brits.

What I meant when I said small countries was their size as in square miles in area, and not population. I do realize Germany is packed with a population of over 82,000,000 and is about the same size in square miles as the US state of New Mexico. I lived in Darmstadt, Germany for nearly 3 years. But, that was a long time ago. Oktoberfest was fun!

I watch BBC channel often, like their news and movies. I don't have HBO, but Downton Abbey is really good. Saw the first 2 seasons in Comcast On-Demand. Still waiting for season 3 to pop up there.

John

Hi there
As the previous poster says - the Cost of Broadband in most places in the UK where there is reasonable competition - particularly between Virgin and SKY you can get some good deals and UNCAPPED -- as I've pointed out there's no point in having the fastest broadband on the planet if your CAP is about 5 mins worth of an HD MOVIE -- don't forget it's not just DOWNLOADS that consume bandwidth but things like STREAMED services (NETFLIX, SKY GO etc) also consume just as much as downloads too.

The main problem with the UK is that if the courts can get an order at the drop of a hat to BLOCK sites there won't be soon be any sites apart from Govt services to log on to. The UK will soon have a more restricted service than China or N Korea !!!

Here's another 20 or so sites that are being blocked in the UK - some of these aren't even "classical Torrent sites" but are getting refused access just because some Movie / music companies think they *Could* host copyright material !!!!.

From the BBC : BBC News - ISPs told to block 21 pirate sites

Mind you takes about 2 secs to bypass - but still shows what Govts are REALLY after - not per se the blocking of these sorts of sites - but eventually ANY site they don't like - probably will give a bovine reason like National Security. By allowing the courts to have a go at these sites the UK Govt is testing the water for a BIG attack later on sites IT wants to block.

I'm sure in the USA the Federal Govt is probably looking at this with interest too --just because it happens in ONE country doesn't mean it won't happen elsewhere.


Cheers
jimbo