VOIP Tech Chat → Re: US broadband service is costly and constipated.

8 mbps is something you can easily get in the US. Yes it costs more - but it's definitely there.

What I'm talking about is countries like Japan where you can get a 100mbit or even 1gigabit FTTH - but when you try to hit up US servers it crawls at 2mbps. Pricing in Japan is about the same as the US - they just give higher speeds which are only really higher *inside Japan*.

Ok, I see what you're saying. Most content (say Windows 7 or various big ISO sets or video) will be on edge servers so it should come down quick. Multistream downloaders will make a big difference, too.

However, the real point is that the USA should find a way to provide even the rural population high speed access, 8M is more than enough, at a reasonable price. It would benefit an enormous number of citizens.

Nitzan, that's exactly what we have been talking about that we have paid more for broadband Internet connections here in the US compared to other countries.