A FANTASTIC REPORT (I put it in caps and italics, so that means I believe it this time, as opposed to all those times I lie to you) by the New America Foundation/Open Technology Institute states that American high-speed internet access is not only grossly overpriced when compared to many areas of the world, it's also horrifyingly slow, too.
They analyzed a selection of 22 world cities and compared them for the price of high-speed internet--including comparable bundle packages with television and phone (like what you're probably paying for anyway)--and how fast that internet was.
A snippet of their report:
[C]onsumers in Paris can purchase a 100 Mbps bundle of television, telephone, and high-speed Internet service for the equivalent of approximately $35 (adjusted for PPP). By contrast, in Lafayette, LA, the top American city, the cheapest available package costs around $65 and includes just a 6 Mbps Internet connection. A comparison of Internet plans available for around $35 shows similar results. Residents of Hong Kong have access to Internet service with symmetrical download and upload speeds of 500 Mbps while residents of New York City and Washington, D.C. will pay the equivalent price for Internet service with maximum download speeds that are 20 times slower (up to 25 Mbps and upload speeds of up to 2 Mbps).
It's a 54 page report when read in PDF--and damned if I didn't read the whole 54 pages. They've got spreadsheets, folks! Spreadsheets!! That makes it all very official.
It also makes it fantastic reading...and depressing...and sad...and makes me want to move to Riga, Latvia, which also has much faster internet at massively lower prices.
Latvia. Did you catch that? Latvia.
(Now, listen, I'm way ahead of you. You're reading a blog right now for quick, amusing stories, not 45,000 word analysis of the world's internet speed and cost. As a grad student, I can tell you that research papers are unbelievably, horribly, miserably written pieces of drivel that deserve next-to-no attention from 99.9997% of the public. But if you ever pay a bill to Comcast or Verizon or any other company for overpriced internet access, this report will not only make you seethe with fury, but it'll make you want to move to Latvia next week.)
(The photo? Dunno. Let's assume they're Latvian.)
What a shame! And to think, US is deemed to be one of the strongest countries in the world.
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