Singapore Loves Broadband

Before you know it, Kenya will have better broadband access than the USA. That's because in the US, "smart" people run broadband companies!

Ugh.

Will the US please look at this example???

i have to agree with you Ramones74.. we can only hope for the best here in the us..its sad how long its taking for people to get BB .. i think its the price that is holding people back from getting it.i see alot of that at Best buy.. i always ask how would u like to DL movies in 4 hrs some say how cool is that and how much .. so i tell then anywhere from 44.99 for RR up to 49.99 for DSL if thay can get it.. ..oh well .. i think its worth having BB no matter what..and in time it will come down in price as well .. we can dream right

said by tcp1:

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Before you know it, Kenya will have better broadband access than the USA. That's because in the US, "smart" people run broadband companies!

Ugh.

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I stayed at a hotel in Kenya on the Masai Mara plains once. They said their one line of phone service goes out every two months or so when a local tribe goes out to pull down the phone wire to make jewelry to sell to tourists. (true story).

It could be worse here, you see, but not that by much... They started using aluminum to wire the street lights in Miami after the crack-addicts started stealing the wire to buy crack.

Maybe the all the phone company execs are selling all our copper to buy themselves some crack too (and you wonder why so many of us are denied DSL because of fiber in the loop)... just a thought but hey it seems more logical than some of the reasons the phone companies are giving for denying people broadband, and it definitely accounts for the gross mismanagement.

Singapore isn't run like the Bush family plantation,by and for big energy and other large corporate interests.

[text was edited by author 2002-04-15 16:46:33]

Maybe if we send 3rd world countries food they'll send us better broadband

Funny comment but your sig makes no sense.

Posting Error....
[text was edited by author 2002-04-15 22:02:06]

America is the new 3rd world, the country is run by people who cant get out of the roaring twenties. Give it time and they will be sending US food. gg = Bush, Hollings, Tauzin, Dingel etc. etc. etc.

Maybe, if we're nice to them.

For those who don't already know, Singapore isn't exactly 3rd world. It's a very modern city state.

That doesn't change the fact that they are becoming more wired than us.

No, it doesn't. However, it's not really a fair comparison. Singapore is a very densely populated island nation with basically no rural communities. There are about 4 million people living on an island of about 250 sq. miles. The vast majority of it's citizens live in high rise, government owned public housing which makes it far easier and far less expensive to wire large numbers of people.

The Singapore government also has far more control over how things are done there and has the advantage of being able to centrally plan and deploy cabling.

As JavaRocks said, they're a tiny country. It's about 600 square miles and most people live in an urban setting. That's a whole lot easier to wire than 3,500,000 square miles in the U.S.

Actually my sig does make sense, no one can live hapily in pefect perfection

Excuse my ignorance but since nobody has lived in such environment, how would you know?

Excuse my ignorance but how would you know that no one has lived in such an environment?

said by SpeedD3mon:

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Actually my sig does make sense, no one can live hapily in pefect perfection

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Actually when you ARE in Heaven you WILL be happy.

that's why there's a question mark, don't know myself, rhetorical question, just an opinion

[text was edited by author 2002-04-15 13:44:22]

I'm not saying I don't believe in heaven, but we all ponder existance once and a while don't we

Get back on topic and quit flaming in DSL forums.

I don't know the exact definition of flaming but I was responding to a question, and last time I checked we were on topic..

Don't worry about it, he's just having cabin fever.

Cabin fever???

sorry for my sig but forget it, let's save it for the chat forums

Broadband will not have widespread appeal in the US unless the price is more reasonable. Paying an average of $50 a month for service in not a drop in the bucket for most people especially if the service is bad(with the exception of OOL of course).

The price of broadband is not going to drop unless there is competition and there isn't alot of that in broadband nowadays. The wrong approach most of the cable companies and DSL companies are using is that they can charge a high price and they will get customers. Sure they will, however, they will not get as much customers as they would like.

Coming up in May, Comcast will raise my price to almost $60 a month because I don't use their cable tv service(if they offered a good service at a reasonable price, I would have considered it).

Even when cable companies and to a lesser extent DSL companies finalize their buildout, they are not going to have as much customers because they charge so much.

Want more broadband customers. Its very simple. Lower your price and offer consistent service.

"In a recent survey, entitled Survey of Broadband Users in Singapore, commissioned by IDA and conducted by Precision Research Services, it found that 92 percent of all broadband users went online at least two days a week."

Twice a week? Boy those wild and crazy people in Singapore!

Singapore is the safest and cleanest large metropolitan city in the world. It is also where you can be ticketed and fined for not flushing the toilet, jaywalking, making to much noise, smoking in the wrong area such as an elevator, (they have surveillance cameras everywhere), and so on. They have lots of rules and laws and there is no looking the other way in enforcing them and the punishment is definitely on the harsh side--can you spell c-a-n-i-n-g?

Man, one can only wonder what will happen to someone in Singapore using the Internet getting caught looking at the wrong web site or downloading the wrong pictures or other files to their computer!

With a draconian society like that, wouldn't it be counterintuitive to expect the government to have such a proactive stance on internet access? Why bother spending lots of money on monitoring technologies and instead cut off access to ensure that "questionable activities" are minimized?

To make money you usually have to spend money. Internet access makes lots of people lots of money.

Actually, I believe that in many places in the U.S., you can also be ticketed for jaywalking, making too much noise, smoking in non-smoking areas, and so on. The U.S. probably has more laws on the books than Singapore! Okay, so there probably isn't a law against not flushing the toilet or importing chewing gum, but living in Singapore is really not as harsh as it sounds. Like the U.S., not every law is rigidly enforced all the time. Law enforcement is generally reasonable and they do exercise some common sense when dealing with suspects. If you did accidentally go to a banned web site in Singapore, I'm pretty sure you won't find the police breaking down your door.

Contrary to what some Americans believe, Singapore does not have cameras and police watching your every move. I suspect that the U.S. may actually have more surveillance cameras per capita than Singapore.

I agree that caning is harsh by today's standards, but it's a form of discipline that was practiced by many parents in the U.S. not so long ago. And Michael Fay, the American teenager who got caned in Singapore for vandalism, will definitely think hard about the consequences before he goes on his next rampage. Other than vandalism and possibly drug trafficking, I believe the only crimes that are punishable by caning are violent crimes, i.e. rape, murder, armed robber, assault, etc.

In my visits to Singapore it was my personal observations that their reputation for cleanliness, lack of crime, strict enforcement of laws which carry harsh punishment was a reality as was the common presence of video cameras. How much more presence do you want than cameras in public restrooms to see that you flush the toilet and cameras in elevators recording infractions such as smoking.

What were your observations in your visits to Singapore?

Regarding caning, perhaps you should give your opinion to then 18 year old visiting American youth Michael Peter Fay who in 1994 or 1995 received four strokes from the cane and several months in prison for spray painting and egging some parked cars.

I lived in Singapore 3.5 years and had their DSL for 2 years. I was getting high speed up and down with never any downtime. (I still have the Alcatel modem and ATM card) Singapore invested heavily in Fiber across the island and made it easy for everyone to get the same high speed service by prewiring all the newer buildings and retrofitting older buildings as they get other upgrades.

Regarding that Caning of the American Kid. He and some Singaporean boys were spraypainting Mercedes cars. The Misubishi Lancer I had there cost $135,000. The Singaporean boys each got 12 strokes of the cane. The american passed out after 4.

said by bdougr:

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Regarding that Caning of the American Kid. He and some Singaporean boys were spraypainting Mercedes cars. The Singaporean boys each got 12 strokes of the cane. The american passed out after 4.

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Bad luck for the American since his sentence was actually 4 strokes. It would have been much more to his benefit had he passed out sometime before the fourth stroke.

Since when is Singapoure a 3rd world nation? Singapoure is NOT 3rd world...

Really? On what do you base that opinion?

The last statistics I saw (1998) had Singapore as the 7th richest country based on GDP per capita. That put them right ahead of the U.S., right behind Japan and well ahead of the U.K. Those numbers were provided by the World Bank. What do you base your opinion on?

Why are we even wasting time defending this punk a$$ Michael Fay?

The fact is, law is a effective form of deterrent to prevent people from committing crime, hence, if you're not planning on committing crime, then why do you even care? Normal law abiding citizen should have no fear on the harsh punishment because they're not going to commit crime anyway!

The way I see it, anyone who defended Michael Fay either supported and favored his criminal action, or is planning on doing some vandalism by themselves, so when they do get caught, they won't get punish too badly!

And the points raised in the previous paragraphs apply anywhere in the world where countries are governed by law, not just Singapore!

So, instead of moanin' and bitchin' about the punishment this punk received, why don't you question his dumb-a$$ irresponsible actions in the first place?

IF YOU CAN'T BEAR THE PUNISHMENT, THEN DON'T DO THE DAMN CRIME!!!!!!!!
[text was edited by author 2002-04-16 04:00:38]

said by BlueElectron:

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Why are we even wasting time defending this punk a$$ Michael Fay?....anyone who defended Michael Fay either supported and favored his criminal action, or is planning on doing some vandalism by themselves....So, instead of moanin' and bitchin' about the punishment this punk received, why don't you question his dumb-a$$ irresponsible actions in the first place?

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Nobody in this thread defended Fay or his actions. He is only brought up to illustrate the issue that in Singapore they have lots of laws against just about everything like not flushing the toilet and littering AND that they strictly enforce those laws and deal out extremely harsh punishment in relation to the crime. They also monitor their citizens a lot to deter and catch people breaking even the smallest laws--like video cameras in public restrooms to catch "criminals" who don't flush the toilet. Are you following so far?

Now regarding broadband in Singapore it was suggested that anyone using the Internet in Singapore should be extra careful about what web sites they go to or what they download onto their computer from the Internet given Singapore's perspective on wrong doing and their way of punishing the wrong doer.

So nobody but you is making an issue of Fay and his actions. I hope your reading problem improves so you can follow along better in future threads you read.

I am from Singapore. Yes we do have some harsh laws to deter criminals, but we do not have cameras in public nor private restrooms (its against the law to install cameras) to catch "criminals" who don't flush the toilet. No one has ever been fined for not flushing toilets!

Let me tell you this...ME myself...Is from Singapore...the news title might be cathcy..But..look at this the speed over there stinks 512/128 and they are way behind america in all aspect dont trust what you hear ..ive been there and done it..Singapore suck..and another thing..singapore is very far from kenya its near thailand for those who dont know and i think its not a third world country..you guys are such dumb asses no offense

Hmmmm........I thought you were from Malaysia? Ain't it funny how people are still trying to be with us dumb asses?
America......I'M STAYIN'!!!! LOL

It's pretty sad to see 1 out of every 3 residents in Singapore of all places have BB access, I use satellite but I dont expect to have a low latency connection for a long time ... Adelphia wont upgrade my lines for another 3+ years and of course my C/O is DSl equipeed but guess who lives more then 18,000 ft of the C/O?

In New Zealand we only get two options with ADSL through the main telco. 128/128 or 8000/800 with terribly low caps.
The 128kbit service costs $40 US a mth with a 10Gb cap. The 8mbit service costs $45 US a mth with a 600mb cap.

For the average person using around 4-5gb a month the 8mbit service costs heaps.

Our other options are limited as the local loop still awaits unbundling. We do not have cable.
The 128kbit service is hardly broadband.

As I write, I'm on a 1mbit radio connection costing me $100US a mth, one of the lucky few to be in an area with lots of broadband options.

So before you go off calling US's broadband, look at what we can only hope for in New Zealand with our useless government.