Why is broadband so expensive in the US

[whs]

For instance, at high speeds of 45 Mbps and over, the OECD report has the US ranked 30th out of 33 countries, with an average price of $90 a month. With phone and TV thrown in, plus some premium channels, these packages often cost $200.

Source

 

[jimbo45]

For instance, at high speeds of 45 Mbps and over, the OECD report has the US ranked 30th out of 33 countries, with an average price of $90 a month. With phone and TV thrown in, plus some premium channels, these packages often cost $200.

Source

View attachment 291473

Hi there
I think I "Pipp'ed" you to it -- I posted this in the W8 Forums.

What bugs me even more is that Caps are ridiculously low in the US whereas in Europe services are essentially uncapped -- no point capping broadband once you start streaming or downloading full HP quality (1080p) movies - or better - just think of what happens when 4K video quality appears (next generation - post HD) --you'll have swallowed up your monthly allowance in 10 mins of movie download .

This is where consumers made an error -- for my part I'd rather take a 4MB /s internet speed with UNLIMITED downloads than 30 GB with say a typical 130 GB Cap limit per month. The consumers seemed to go for the higher speed -- but what's the point if IT'S CAPPED.

Even when I'm in the UK -- not the cheapest place on the planet - I get UNCAPPED from SKY at reasonable fibre optic download -- FREE for 6 mths - and that includes phone calls -- and I can get the WHOLE SKY TV kybosh - Movie channels, sport and every other thing you can think of for 78 GBP a month ( approx. 85 EUR / 110 USD) - and a lot cheaper if I cut out the Sex channels, Movie channels etc and just take the basic TV with a few channels like discovery plus the Sports channels (which is basically just what I actually want).

I'm still on a gig in the UK (as well as with other clients in Continental Europe so travel between apartments in Brussels, Manchester and Paris a lot) for another year or so --the SKY package makes a lot of sense and --Virgin and other operators I believe also offer similar decent monthly packages too.

No way anything like 200 USD a month - and this is in Manchester UK - not as expensive as say London but certainly not the cheapest place in a not very cheap country either.

Cheers
jimbo.

 

[whs]

Sorry, I did not see your post on the eightforums. In the US I pay $40 for DSL and in Germany I pay 16 Euros (appr. $20) for a DSL that is 4 times as fast as my US line. Go figure. And since I have no mobile phone and only basic cable (for the wife), there is nothing I can save in the US.

Off and on I get calls in the US where they want to sell me a DSL and cable package. When I tell them that I am looking for a package similar to the one I have in Germany at $40 for DSL 6000 plus 250 cable channels where more than half of them are commercial free, then they give up and I have a good laugh.

 

[mjf]

I'm with Telstra / Bigpond (Australia) I get ~ 7Mbps download and .3Mbps upload (basic ADSL these figures are bits not bytes) and 25GByte per month cap. It costs me A$40 per month. This is only after discounts from other services!
BTW I'm in a suburb of a capital city and not in some remote area. Based on the International figures this doesn't look a good deal but I don't think there are better options.

 

[Stephanie]

Wow, My broadband is 20mb line unlimited downloads for £8 a month in a package, (with HD TV + phone package).

 

[ThrashZone]

Hold onto your seat it's suppose to go up

 

[boohbah]

i don't think the chart is accurate, London shows approx $40 for less than 20mb

i have 160mb for £25 which is basically $40

 

[ThrashZone]

Always love to see the euro/ dollar conversion :banghead:

 

[OvenMaster]

For instance, at high speeds of 45 Mbps and over, the OECD report has the US ranked 30th out of 33 countries, with an average price of $90 a month. With phone and TV thrown in, plus some premium channels, these packages often cost $200.

Source

View attachment 291473

Hi there
I think I "Pipp'ed" you to it -- I posted this in the W8 Forums.

What bugs me even more is that Caps are ridiculously low in the US whereas in Europe services are essentially uncapped -- no point capping broadband once you start streaming or downloading full HP quality (1080p) movies - or better - just think of what happens when 4K video quality appears (next generation - post HD) --you'll have swallowed up your monthly allowance in 10 mins of movie download .

This is where consumers made an error -- for my part I'd rather take a 4MB /s internet speed with UNLIMITED downloads than 30 GB with say a typical 130 GB Cap limit per month. The consumers seemed to go for the higher speed -- but what's the point if IT'S CAPPED.

Even when I'm in the UK -- not the cheapest place on the planet - I get UNCAPPED from SKY at reasonable fibre optic download -- FREE for 6 mths - and that includes phone calls -- and I can get the WHOLE SKY TV kybosh - Movie channels, sport and every other thing you can think of for 78 GBP a month ( approx. 85 EUR / 110 USD) - and a lot cheaper if I cut out the Sex channels, Movie channels etc and just take the basic TV with a few channels like discovery plus the Sports channels (which is basically just what I actually want).

I'm still on a gig in the UK (as well as with other clients in Continental Europe so travel between apartments in Brussels, Manchester and Paris a lot) for another year or so --the SKY package makes a lot of sense and --Virgin and other operators I believe also offer similar decent monthly packages too.

No way anything like 200 USD a month - and this is in Manchester UK - not as expensive as say London but certainly not the cheapest place in a not very cheap country either.

Cheers
jimbo.

Bingo!
And this is why I have Verizon DSL. 3Mb/sec down, 768kb/sec up, for $23 a month added to my landline bill, and it's uncapped.

The only other broadband deal in my town is Comcast cable. They want $49 a month for the same speed, they can raise the price after six months, it's capped at 250GB total traffic (=up AND down) per month, and that price is in addition to cable TV fees! I don't even think you can order it without subscribing to cable TV, so that would leave me out.

 

[boohbah]

Always love to see the euro/ dollar conversion :banghead:

huh?

 

[whs]

Always love to see the euro/ dollar conversion :banghead:

huh?

The Euro/Dollar conversion rate is not yet critical. It will be critical once you can buy 1 doallar with 1 Cuban Peso.

 

[boohbah]

i think my point went over heads,
£25 is what i pay for 160mb ,
just so happens £25 is $40 .

my point was that the graph in the OP is not accurate as it shows less than 20mb for $40 /£25 for london.

when i get 8 times that amount for $40 /£25s, making the london/Uk graph figures wrong.

 

[ThrashZone]

i think my point went over heads,
£25 is what i pay for 160mb ,
just so happens £25 is $40 .

my point was that the graph in the OP is not accurate as it shows less than 20mb for $40 /£25 for london.

No I didn't miss your point.
But you missed the dollars depreciation against the euro which was my twist on your example.

 

[ThrashZone]

Always love to see the euro/ dollar conversion :banghead:

huh?

The Euro/Dollar conversion rate is not yet critical. It will be critical once you can buy 1 doallar with 1 Cuban Peso.

LOL that's why I love seeing the conversions,
Thanks for that reminder

 

[boohbah]

only thing is,
my conversion is GBP/dollars not euros

 

[AmericanPharaoh]

I use Comcast. My bundle is $141.44. This includes digital Preferred package with about 250 channels. Approximately 100 channels are in HD. Don't watch the lower resolution channels much, many of the old movies are fuzzy there. My Internet speed is 28 Mbps, plus.

Every 6 months, I call Comcast and tell them I'm thinking of leaving and going to ATT for my service. But, if they can offer a better deal than ATT, I will stay with them. So, I actually end up paying $95.63

Not sure if my service is capped. I don't download many movies anymore. Instead, I subscribe to Netflix for under $10.00 per month. Where I stream many HD movies to watch. I also have a DVR which Comcast provides and record most anything I what to watch later. Or use On-Demand and there is a lot on there, too.

With all of it, it is far more than I could ever watch.

So, it's about $30 for Internet, about $40 for TV and $25 for equipment and taxes. I don't feel these amounts are overpriced. Actually, it's quite reasonable.

Final thought, were some things are more expensive in the US, the same is true for many things costing less here than in other countries.

John

 

[whs]

How many of your 250 channels are totally without commercials.

 

[AmericanPharaoh]

How many of your 250 channels are totally without commercials.

Probably none. And I don't pay for premium channels, such as, HBO, Showtime, etc. Some channels have more commercials than others. That said, commercials really don't bother me, I use the free time to go to the can, grab a bite to eat, or post a comment here to you good folks.

I can never sit through an entire movie. If it's a DVD, I usually pause it several times, so I can do other things. Same goes with Netflix's. I also have a 1500 DVD movie collection. One of my computers has 150GB of music, and about 700GB of Blu-ray movies. On my home network, I right-click and select "play to" my Blu-ray home theater system. So, you see I have a lot of choices, if I don't want to be bothered with interruptions.

I was not too long ago we only had 7 TV channels on a set of rabbit ears. No computers, no cell phones, no high tech stuff. Did a lot of reading and listening to the radio in those days. I'm retired now, for more than 10 years. So, things are much slower than it used to be. Many of the commercials are actually funny and are good entertainment.

John

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

...commercials really don't bother me, I use the free time to go to the can, grab a bite to eat, or post a comment here to you good folks. ...Many of the commercials are actually funny and are good entertainment.

John

I feel the same. Sadly, obnoxious commercials are increasing. One advantage of commercials, beside the fact they are paying for our entertainment, givesa break to do important tasks (such as pit stops), and can be entertaining, is they inform us of new products and services.

 

[whs]

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.