The Cost of Affordable High-Speed Internet
October 29, 2009 by Rico Mossesgeld
Filed under Services
If the Top 20 Nations in Internet Speeds and Costs, according to the ITIF Broadband Rankings, are accurate, then can we assume that the cost for really cheap yet super-fast internet access is a higher cost of living?
Here’s the table ranking the top 10 countries. Thanks to the US-centric tech media, poor America is listed at number 15, with an average connection speed of 4.8Mbps, with an average $3.33 cost for a 1Mbps connection.
| Rank | Country | Ave. Connection Speed | Price/Month for 1Mbps |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Japan | 61Mbps | $0.27 |
| 2 | Korea | 46Mbps | $0.43 |
| 3 | Finland | 22Mbps | $2.77 |
| 4 | Sweden | 18Mbps | $4.04 |
| 5 | France | 18Mbps | $1.64 |
| 6 | Netherlands | 9Mbps | $4.31 |
| 7 | Portugal | 8Mbps | $10.99 |
| 8 | Canada | 7.6Mbps | $6.50 |
| 9 | Poland | 7.5Mbps | $13.00 |
| 10 | Norway | 7Mbps | $4.04 |
| 15 | USA | 4.8Mbps | $3.33 |
Most likely this is material for the “Oh, how the US is behind technologically” bandwagon. But hopefully the respective government infrastructure agencies consider the top 10 as models to follow.
This chart makes absolutely NO SENSE. If you take the “average” speed and multiply by the “average” cost per MB, you SHOULD get something approximating what it costs. Nobody in the USA at least is paying $16/month for a close to 5Mbps connection, more like 3 to 4 times that. And there’s not a snowball’s chance in hell the AVERAGE connection across all of Japan is 61Mbps, let alone paying only ~$16/month for it.
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