By what year do you expect fibre-optic connections to be the norm?

[Dogs On Acid]

Just like ADSL replaced dial-up in the mid 2000's, by when will high-speed fibre optics be accessible to most of the population?

Also why is the U.S.A. so far behind Europe in connection speeds?

[Metacomet]

Most of the developed world?

2020ish. Maybe sooner.

Most of the world? Who knows.

[thefinalmarch]

Also why is the U.S.A. so far behind Europe in connection speeds?
Quit complaining. I live in Australia and I would fucking love your connection speeds.

[Dogs On Acid]

Quit complaining. I live in Australia and I would fucking love your connection speeds.

I'm European... Just wonder why America has such backward connections. Maybe it's the size of the country?

:confused:

[AnonymousOne]

Just like ADSL replaced dial-up in the mid 2000's, by when will high-speed fibre optics be accessible to most of the population?

Also why is the U.S.A. so far behind Europe in connection speeds?

Size of country, monopolistic telecom industry, lack of investment in infrastructure, lack of demand for higher speeds etc.

It's not a technological problem, I pay $100 a month for 100mbps wideband, so the technology and availability is there. The problem is that companies make it very difficult to access those speeds.

We could have it across the U.S in a standard fashion if we tackled it aggressively and effectively. But more likely we won't see it till 2020.

[praxis1966]

Size of country, monopolistic telecom industry, lack of investment in infrastructure, lack of demand for higher speeds etc.

It's not a technological problem, I pay $100 a month for 100mbps wideband, so the technology and availability is there. The problem is that companies make it very difficult to access those speeds.

We could have it across the U.S in a standard fashion if we tackled it aggressively and effectively. But more likely we won't see it till 2020.

This, and the fact that various telephone companies would rather perpetrate a fraud of the federal government and the bourgeois legislators have no desire to do anything about it. Since telephone communications are seen as vital to national security, the feds have traditionally assumed the position that they can set price limits on telecommunications, as anti-capitalist as that sounds.

However, back in the late 90s, the telephone industry (who was then the primary source of internet service in the US) petitioned federal regulators to allow them to up their rates. Their logic? That the increased revenues would be used as capital to build a massive fiber optic infrastructure. The feds decided this would be a good idea, but didn't see fit to put a timeline on the thing or penalize a failure to lay the lines. Therefore, there was no incentive for telephone companies to actually follow through with their promises... Well, a leopard rarely changes it's spots, so like the capitalist entities these corporations are, they just decided to pocket most of the profits from the rate hike whilst doing some nominal cabling in certain areas.

In the meantime, cable television companies moved into the market who aren't bound by the same regulations that the phone companies are. This allows them to exponentially increase bandwidth fees while only offering incremental improvements in service. (For example, a previous ISP I used made a backdoor rate hike in which they introduced a higher grade bandwidth at the top end of their service. At the bottom end, they decreased the bandwidth I got for $40 a month as a way of creating a demand for higher end service... Therefore, even though my monthly bill didn't increase, my bandwidth shrunk. It didn't work; I switched ISPs.)

[thefinalmarch]

I'm European...
That only makes me more jealous of your speeds.

[Taikand]

In a year or two...in Eastern Europe at least.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_in_Romania (: P)

[Dogs On Acid]

In a year or two...in Eastern Europe at least.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_in_Romania (: P)

Yeah Eastern Europe have some of the fastest internet speeds. Romania is like top 10 in the world!

How can they afford that?

[Taikand]

Yeah Eastern Europe have some of the fastest internet speeds. Romania is like top 10 in the world!

How can they afford that?

I only pay 10 Euros a month.Some ISPs have optic fiber connection below 20 Euros. Internet is extremely cheap here.

[Dogs On Acid]

I only pay 10 Euros a month.Some ISPs have optic fiber connection below 20 Euros. Internet is extremely cheap here.

Fibre-optic hardware is incredibly expensive, it will take a long time to make their money back at 10-20 euro connections fares.

[jake williams]

In the US, it'll either take a totally unthinkable resurgence in capitalist growth, or it'll take something like a big social democratic push (at least) and a nationalized or partially nationalized telecommunications industry.

I don't think either is especially likely in the near future, but something's gotta go, so who knows. Wouldn't write off having it be a major standard in parts of New York and California, though.