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Communications Technology

Telcos - How Do Developed Countries Compare? 59

Posted by Cliff from the does-your-telco-suck dept.
armondf asks: "I live in South Africa and we are currently laboring under one of the most draconian Telecoms companies in the world (Telkom). Most South African geeks hate this company more than Microsoft. Here, basic ADSL services from our Telecoms provider are charged R270 - R480 - roughly $US40 - $US72 (and that's just for the *line rental*) - that excludes our ISP costs (at least another R200 or $US30) and there is a 3 Gig cap. Our Telecoms provider simply threatens to stop the service if our regulators impose stricter regulations. How do developing countries (like South Africa) become competitive with provision of Internet Services - such as ADSL as compared to Developed countries Telcos? Are there any other developing countries failing to implement affordable broadband solutions to the masses? Did developing countries go through the same teething problems?"
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Telcos - How Do Developed Countries Compare? More

Telcos - How Do Developed Countries Compare?

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  • Not bad. (Score:2, Informative)

    by Seumas ( 6865 ) *
    ADSL services from our Telecoms provider are charged R270 - R480 - roughly $US40 - $US72 (and that's just for the *line rental*) - that excludes our ISP costs (at least another R200 or $US30) and there is a 3 Gig cap.

    Aside from the 3gig cap, that's not too bad of a deal. With Qwest, you could get something like 256kbps for $30 or so per month. If you want a real ISP with some amount of freedom and no connection resets every couple of hours, it would probably cost you about $70/mo for a 768kbps line from th

    • Re:Not bad. (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Seumas ( 6865 ) *
      Of course, I should mention that the price you quote is not bad based on the American cost of living. I have no idea how much it costs to live in South Africa or what the pay scales are or minimum wages or job market or unemployment rate or anything else.
      • ...the price you quote is not bad based on the American cost of living...

        Be that as it may the telco equipment to provide those services probably isn't manufactured in SA either!
              Not to mention many countries have import duties as high as 100% on technology items. (Dunno if SA is like that...?)
    • "If you want a real ISP with some amount of freedom and no connection resets every couple of hours, it would probably cost you about $70/mo for a 768kbps line from the phone company and maybe $80/mo for the service from an ISP. So about $150/mo for 768kbps DSL."

      You're getting ripped if you're paying that much. Qwest offers 7mbit/1mbit DSL with "MSN" ISP for around $50 a month. If you don't install the MSN software (or if you use Linux), it's not so bad, and there aren't any connection resets.

      Comcast around
      • And how many static IP addresses will Qwest give you in that price? And are there more than five people who live close enough to actually get those kind of speeds? And are they fine with you running your own web and mail servers?

        As far as comcast, don't forget to add the extra $10 if you don't also have Cable TV. And don't forget modem rental. And installation (even if you do it yourself, they'll charge you about $50). And Franchise fees. And taxes.
    • What? My DSL line rental costs $5 a month, and 1.5M/768k costs $70 on top of that (with 3 static IPs and no landline service). This is Speakeasy (in SBC territory).
      • You're getting shafted. We pay $20 CDN for land line (my roommate's), and $40 CDN for 3meg down/1 meg up, 5 static IPs with reverse DNS, and no download/upload cap (Montreal, QC)
        • your with Bell Sympatico too I guess? ;) (I'm in Montreal too)

          How do we get such good rates? One word, government regulations. Bell (our ex-phone monopoly) has to rent the lines for 7 $CAD/month to their competitors (for DSL). They dont get to pick the price.

          Oh and on top of that, for a few years they had a price war with the cable company. Also helped by proper regulation..
          • Actually, I'm with Pubnix [pubnix.net]. Great service, I highly recommend. We have DSL through them at home and at work, and I have the owner's cell number in case problems happen and there's no one at the office. Ugly site, but good service.
        • That's the going rate around here, but now that I think about it, you're right. I am being majorly shafted. In Japan, I got 55MBps for $20 a month! There's NO reason it shouldn't be like that here...
    • My area is monopolized by Adelphia. Cost is like $56.95 per month for regular cable Internet service (3 Mbps/256 Kbs). I wished Verizon FiOS was here. DSL is too far (20K ft.). Dial-up sucks (3 KB/sec average).
    • It varies, a lot, in the US. In urban and suburban areas, it's generally cheap and available.

      These are minimums; higher bandwidths are generally available:
      DSL is generally $35ish/month which is now ~1.5Mbps down, 256-384K up (this has gone up a bunch in the last year or two from 768 down, 128 up).

      Cable is generally 1.5-6 Mbps down, 150-384K up (Comcast, the largest by far, is switching to all 6 down, 384 up or better, or about that). Price is a little higher, circa $45/month. In the last 2 years, it was

    • The experience with Time-Warner is consistently good from my personal experience and those I have heard from others.

      No port restrictions. They do get a tad uppity if they find you have port 25 open, but that's about it. For $45/mo, I get 3Mb down/384kb up, for $90/mo, I could up that to 6Mb/768kb. Transfer speeds seem to be very consistent, despite being shared bandwidth, leading me to believe that they are not overselling their network. Customer service is also very good.

      A friend who has Verizon DS

    • Where are you living? Your area must be a real bandwidth ghetto compared to California. I am living in SF Bay Area and pay $50/month for 1500/768Kbps WorldCom ADSL service. There are no bandwidth limits whatsoever and you get a static IP with it. Installation is free and you can pay only $40/month with a yearly contract. May friends in Texas pay about $40/month for a similar (cable) service in Texas.
  • ADSL in Edmonton is $35.00/month (about $24.00/month USD) that's 1.5M down, and 640K up.
    Cable is $39.00/month, and it's 5.0M down, 1.5M up (at least mine is.)

    There are no hard transfer limits (from any of the companies), but I've heard some people complain that they got letters from their ISPs saying they were using too much (I average 8-10GB/month on my Shaw cable account, and have never heard a thing from them.)

    Depending on who you get your service through, support can be either good or bad. In my experi
    • The parent is wrong about Shaw's speeds, they are listed here [www.shaw.ca] for the basic speeds, and there is an Extreme package which adds 2Mbps to your downstream, and 512Kbps to your upstream for $10/mo more.

      Shaw's Residental Plan is 5Mbps down, 512Kbps up with no "set" limits. The Extreme package gives you 7Mbps down, and 1Mbps up with a 50GB/month limit.
      • The parent is wrong about Shaw's speeds

        Unless you're using a new definition of "wrong", which actually means "correct", you're wrong.

        they are listed here for the basic speeds

        The speeds listed on that page are for downstream only, and it says quite plainly that it's 5Mb/s - which is what I said. There are no references to upstream speeds on any of the pages.

        I have Shaw, and I've measured my upstream at 1.5Mb/s.
        • I am 100% sure you are wrong, Shaw's capped at 512Kbit/s up for residental plan, and 1Mbit/s up for Xtreme.

          Also, check here [broadbandreports.com] for Broadband reports FAQ, as well as here [dslreports.com] for maximum speed tests reported by users.
  • 1.5Mhps 30Gb cap (unenforced) $30ish/month.
  • 15 bucks a month (for the first year) nets you 1.5mbps down and no official bandwidth cap (they say that if you abuse it, though, that they will do something). It tends to be pretty reliable, too, in my area (mid missouri). The rates are supposed to jump after the first year of service, though, but this is the only decent provider in my area (podunk hick town) for high speed access.
  • Get some VC funds and start digging. Setup your own lines and provide your own service to everyone. That's how it's done in developed countries.
    • they have a monopoly on the copper, and the costs to do a new copper infra are insane, moreso if you want to do it right and go fiber. covering the core metros with fiber might be doable though, but I know SA, if you even consider doing something the incumbent whatever doesn't love, a law will get passed, somehow. fiber only importable by telkom? it's possible.

      my condolences for your country.
  • Here in Brazil, at least in the state that I live in, the defacto monopolistic telco is actually nice to us ADSL users:

    300kbps with 10Gb limit for about R$ 60, US$ 20-ish
    600kbps with 15Gb limit for about R$ 100, US$ 30-ish
    1Mbps with 20Gb limit for about R$ 170, US$ 60-ish

    The service, in my case at least, doesn't suck.

    I'm actually happy with the service they offer - ignoring the asshat spammers that scan my firewall every 0.0001 seconds for an open relay, it's not a bad service, IMVHO.
  • Here, for 1.5M/128K, we pay about $13 for the line rental, and about another $10 for the ISP. Not too bad, except that there is NO way to get a faster upload for less than $50/mo. None.
  • Here in NZ, I get cable (static ip, no restrictions) 10mbps, 10GB incl (extra is US$10/GB) for US$100 (NZ$150).

    You can also get ADSL (dynamic ip), 256Kbps, throttled to 64Kbps after 1GB for US$27 (NZ$40).

    There are many, many options in between. :)

    Jason Pollock
    • Hi Jason,

      Do you live in Auckland? Looking for a development job?

      • Hi Kelsey,

        Actually, I live in Wellington. I'm currently on a contract, but I'm always open to opportunities. :)

        Would this be with Orion?

        Feel free to send me an email, jason@pollock.ca

        Regards,
        Jason
  • Here in Japan, I get ADSL at 12Mbit/s down 1Mbit/s up for Y3000 = US$30 per month with NTT/ODL.

    Yahoo! BB gives 40Mbit/s down 1Mbit/s up for about the same price.

    In some areas, you can can get 100Mbit/s fibre for about Y5000 = US$50 per month.

    My ADSL is reliable, but contended at about 200:1, and I'm NATed.
  • For what it's worth, I had ADSL installed in my family's home in a fairly rural part of the Pangasinan province of the Philippines, and can report that the ADSL service there is fairly good (if rather slow). We pay 1600 piso (about $30 USD) per month to Digitel for 256 KBytes down and 64 KBytes up, with no cap. However, when considering the price, it's worth bearing in mind that a local school teacher probably less than $100 USD per month! There was an installation fee equal to about one months service. I
  • [warning: bad sarcasm ahead]

    Welcome to Australia. Firstly, do you live in an area where the local telco exchange has third party DSLAMs installed? If so, forget whats mentioned below. You can get up to 24mbit ADSL2 you lucky barstard.

    You don't? We'll, your're like me. Welcome to telco monopoly by default. Whats a Baby Bell? Sorry, Baby Bell everywhere in the country only means one word: "Toolstra". Pity, we're stuck with only up to 1.5mbit ADSL.

    (I'm on 512/128k ADSL with 15gb cap for $50 which ain't too
    • Telstra Cable: AUD59.95, DOCSIS, peak bandwidth actually seen is about 5mbit (good for the odd Linux distribution), no idea what the theoretical bandwidth is, 10GB/month with bandwidth throttling after 10GB. Annoying requirement for a login client (heartbeat like RoadRunner had/has).

      Optus have a similar cable offering for a similar price but with no client software requirement.
  • As always...
    http://www.telepriskollen.se/Internet/Topplista.as px [telepriskollen.se]

    1 SEK = $0.13 or 0.11

  • Netherlands (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    ADSL monthly subscription fees from the biggest telco in the Netherlands (KPN), no hard caps ("Fair Use Policy"):

    800/256: 21,95 Euro
    1600/512: 29,95 Euro
    3200/768: 49,95 Euro
    8000/1024 74.95 Euro

    You do need to lease a landline (minimum around 10 E per month). Usually they throw in some promotion discounts (1st month free, free WIFI modem/router, etc.). Two or three years back it was much more expensive, probably twice or thrice the price, but competition has unleashed a pricewar of some sorts.

  • In Morocco (Score:2, Informative)

    by Ismail-H ( 854415 )
    In Morocco, there is still a monopoly on the ADSL broadband supply, that makes the prices to be relatively high for a country like morocco,so we pay for 256K, 30 dollars for the Line and the ISP, there is only 100 000 ADSL subscribers,the telecom regulation authority said that there is a potential of 500 000 in the next years. Recently there is a licence which was attributed to a second telecom provider that planes to provide low cost broadband with wimax, by establishing a nation wide wireless network co
  • Here, basic ADSL services from our Telecoms provider are charged R270 - R480 - roughly $US40 - $US72 (and that's just for the *line rental*) - that excludes our ISP costs (at least another R200 or $US30) and there is a 3 Gig cap.
    I have the exact same price here (Verizon), only I am capped at 384kbps/384kbps because they refuse to upgrade a 26-gauge wire between me and the CO. As such, sounds like your deal is quite a bit better than mine.
  • Looking down the list, it seems like we all have about the same choices for roughly the same prices no matter where we live.

    To put it crudely, you get to choose who fucks you in the ass with a bowling pin (telco, cable, satellite). The choice lies in who uses a lubricant that you like the smell of (free install, package deals, free router etc). Meanwhile the regulators, local councils, and other government types are there with thier pliers clamped firmly on your genitals. Ultimately you are getting laid (fa

  • UK (Score:2)

    by cowbutt ( 21077 )
    In the UK, the most common situation is to pay BT, the former nationalised telco, £10.50 (about US$19) per month for 'line rental' (i.e voice only). ADSL usually costs £25-50/US$44-88 (for 'activation', sometimes including the loan of a basic router or USB modem) then between £15 and £25 (US$27-$44) per month for a 512kbps/256kbps 50:1 connection. Most ISPs are currently in the process of doubling the 512kbps to 1Mbps for the same price.

    The regulator ruled a few years ago that BT h

    • Bulldog in London: £30 ($53) per month for phone service + 8Mbit/512Kbps uncapped ADSL. Trivial activation cost. Phone calls cost the same as BT.

      Some people have horrendous problems getting activated with Bulldog, but the silent majority are very happy with them. It's comical that BT Broadband and Pipex sell 1 or 2Mbps as a fast service.
      • Bulldog charge £40 pcm for that service plan in the city I live. Further, they don't offer static IP addresses as standard for consumer accounts and they charge an extra £10 per month for 8 addresses on top of the £52 they ask for their business service plan.

        Interesting, but they need some serious competition.

      • Bulldog are excellent until something goes wrong - then, for want of a more original phrase, you're utterly fucked. You will never be allowed to speak to anyone useful, the financial department never answer the phone, the waiting period for the technical team is measured in epochs and the call centre staff can't even pronounce such complex words as "Battersea" and "January".

        Bulldog recently billed me two hundred pounds for three months service (which should only be about a hundred quid). In the last fortn

  • Our Telecoms provider simply threatens to stop the service if our regulators impose stricter regulations.

    Well duh! If you beat your dog don't be surprised if he growls at you.

    You've got what is known as a "monopoly". The solution is simple. Take away their monopoly. With very few exceptions, monopolies are caused by government grants of monopoly. Stop subsidizing the monopoly, remove legal barriers to competition, stop favoring large corporations over small independents via the tax code and corporate privil
  • it is tough sometimes to get affordable broadband backhaul access to a telecom in many nations, even here in the US and Canada.

    Those prices do not seem that far off.

    Call me old fashion, but I've been polluted into thinking anything under a few hundred a month, that is greater than 1.5Meg is a deal.

    I pay $800.00/month for bonded ADSL (two six meg pipes combined) for a 12 Mbps connection with about 2 Mbps upstream.

    A buddy of mine lives in australia, he's getting something like 768/256 for about $80 USD/

  • Developed country telcos may not be as reliable.

    Here in Sri Lanka ADSL feels much slower than in the UK (I think because of the lack of upstream bandwidth). It is also not terribly reliable and there have been a number of interruptions to service over the last few months (for about an hour this morning, although most have been briefer than that). Service is also restricted to a few areas: Colombo (the capital) and some surrounding areas, and even in these areas there is a waiting list thanks to lack of ca

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