CNN: Why internet connections are faster in South Korea

[hkHog]

Part of the reason for this is because the internet was primarily developed in the USA. Sure it is constantly being upgraded but this takes time and a lot more money than just starting from scratch. I remember visiting Bangladesh about 10 years ago and was surprised to learn that at the time it had one of the most advanced cell phone networks in the world. The reason was because it had only been built in the last year or so and there was no network in place before then. The US on the other hand had had entrenched cell phone networks for 20 years which were massive and served tens of millions of people. Its not so easy to upgrade to the latest and greatest very quickly when you are in that kind of a situation.

[drums and skins]

I'd post this image, but its 1300x1500 pixels or so.

http://www.crunchgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/netspeed.gif

Its a graph of the world and costs of broadband.

[Ryman of the North]

I sell internet solutions to businesses here in canada, my home connection is in a major city in a core and my speed is about 3.0 mbps. I am getting an upgrade but my speed is pretty typical in canada in areas where broadband is available.

[SkinnedAussie]

After a recent network upgrade, I am now ADSL 2+ing @ 10000kbps, then once my 12GB usage limit has been reached, I am throttled back to 384kbps, all for the bargain basement price of A$59.95 per month. We actually get a A$10/month discount as we have our landline telephone with the same company. If I upgraded the modem, I could get speeds of 20000 kbps, which would then be throttled back to 8000 kbps once the monthly limit was reached. In either case, I don't pay extra for using more than 12GB.

Also, for that A$59.95/month, we have the privilege of, when we have technical difficulties, speaking to an Indian named Mike, or Dave, or Steve, or Rick, who is based in downtown Mumbai, and has NFI how to solve the problem unless you are running M$ based software, but that's for another thread.

[Devastate]

Gold farmers need lots of bandwidth

[Devastate]

After a recent network upgrade, I am now ADSL 2+ing @ 10000kbps, then once my 12GB usage limit has been reached, I am throttled back to 384kbps, all for the bargain basement price of A$59.95 per month. We actually get a A$10/month discount as we have our landline telephone with the same company. If I upgraded the modem, I could get speeds of 20000 kbps, which would then be throttled back to 8000 kbps once the monthly limit was reached. In either case, I don't pay extra for using more than 12GB.

Also, for that A$59.95/month, we have the privilege of, when we have technical difficulties, speaking to an Indian named Mike, or Dave, or Steve, or Rick, who is based in downtown Mumbai, and has NFI how to solve the problem unless you are running M$ based software, but that's for another thread.

Well here is another example.. Most people in the US can't get more than 3mbps on their DSL.. the lucky few can get 5 or 7, but I've never even seen 10 or 20 ever offered anywhere. Even 3mbps cost 40 bucks. with 7 mbps costing anywhere from 50-70 bucks =(