Is U.S. Stuck in Internet's Slow Lane?
NEW YORK (AP) - The United States is starting to look like a slowpoke on the Internet. Examples abound of countries that have faster and cheaper broadband connections, and more of their population connected to them. What's less clear is how badly the country that gave birth to the Internet is...

The article is 100% correct. As I write this post I am using a 20 megabit per second ADSL2 connection and paying about 20$ a month.
In the states they don't even have normal ADSL and its like $60 for regular DSL at 8mbs. ADSL3 is in testing as we speak. So yes there is a severe problem in the states, and that problem is due to the USA ancient telephone infrustucture.

If we weren't so busy bombing brown people, we could rewire the country in Fiber Optics and provide fast cheap internet to everybody like they have in Europe and Asia.


We are number 16 in most wired countries, thats PATHETIC.

Wanna try rural Australia? ADSL 128 Kbps A$60 per month (US$55).

And we have the highest computer usage per head of population in the world. Go figure?

Originally Posted by senojekips

Wanna try rural Australia? ADSL 128 Kbps A$60 per month (US$55).

And we have the highest computer usage per head of population in the world. Go figure?

We are not a lot better 4 megabit down and maybe 1 up for $50 a month (US$40) and thats capped at 30gig traffic for the month, I think its about NZ$80 for unlimited traffic.

However we have been promised that the entire country will be ADSL2 within 4 years in fact many of the major exchanges are already done however I am wont be convinced until I see more FOC going in.

As soon as there is a certain amount of demand, the companies will be scrambling to remedy this situation. Verizon is already laying miles of fiberoptic cables in major cities.

Originally Posted by major liability

As soon as there is a certain amount of demand, the companies will be scrambling to remedy this situation. Verizon is already laying miles of fiberoptic cables in major cities.

I know my connection while in the Phoenix (through COX cable) is tolerable but not great and I have friends in Texas that can still only get Dial Up which really surprises me.

I think this is just one of those cyclic events though, you buy new technology and for a while it is fine but over time you get passed by newer technology until you update and it starts all over again.

I think that it is the case of "the chicken or the Egg" here in Australia. Potential users are waiting for higher speeds and Telstra is waiting for more users before they upgrade the system. In the meantime the opposing political parties play one another off against the consumers and we go nowhere.

I run off fiber optic cable and pay $20 a month. My current speed is 100.0 Mbps.

Originally Posted by 5.56X45mm

I run off fiber optic cable and pay $20 a month. My current speed is 100.0 Mbps.

Are you sure you don't mean your Ethernet speed? Thats the "Connected at 100mbs" pop-up window you see in Windows. That only refers to the speed your NiC is going, for example between the PC and the DSL Modem is clocked at 100mbs, but that does not mean your actual Internet connection speed. All NiCs run at 100mbs. The Windows popup is very misleading, lots of people confuse the NiC LAN speed as their actual internet speed, its a common error.

We are talking about Internet Connection speeds, the speed your DSL/Cable modem sends and receives data on the internet.

I am assuming its a commercial ISP, you should check your invoice to see what speed you have, I will gladly help if you need it. Of course if its a non-commercial system (i.e Governmental system) , in which case its normal that I have never heard of it.

It's not hard to believe he gets 100Mbps with a fiber optic connection.