One American City Enjoys a Hyperfast Internet—Any Surprise Corporations Don't Control It?

[Luminous Animal]

http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/one-american-city-enjoys-hyperfast-internet-any-surprise-corporations-dont-control#overlay-context=

One American City Enjoys a Hyperfast Internet—Any Surprise Corporations Don't Control It?

Maintained and operated by Chattanooga’s publicly-owned utility company EPB, “The Gig” allows Chattanooga’s residents to surf the web at lightning-fast speeds.

For less than $70 per month, residents browse the World Wide Web on a high-speed fiber-optic connection that shoots data back and forth at one gigabit per second – that’s 1000 megabytes per second. Where I live in Washington, D.C., you have to pay a lot just to get a 20 megabit-per-second connection.

….

Someone in Chattanooga can download a full-length movie in high-definition in under 35 seconds.

In the rest of the country, downloading that movie would take around 25 minutes.

…


In fact, the United States isn’t even in the top 25 when it comes to internet speeds. We come in at 31, behind countries like Bulgaria, Estonia, and Romania.

[yeoman6987]

1. I just found out that in Europe and Asia, they pay about 35 dollars a month for internet

The reason is because it is considered a utility. That is what we need to change. Although 70 bucks would be pretty good too. I actually don't know what I pay for internet since everything is bundled.

[Art_from_Ark]

6. I'm paying 4500 yen for Internet service in Japan

At the current exchange rate, that is about $38. However, not too long ago the same yen price would have been the equivalent of about $43.

[onehandle]

2. Americans are suckers. That's the essence of our being.

Suckers who believe we have to take less.
Suckers who believe work twice the hours.
Suckers who believe that we have to bow down to gun culture.
Suckers who believe that reality shows are what we aspire to.
And on and on and on...

[Blanks]

4. Suckers who believe that we single handedly won WWII.

Which is why we are so darn exceptional.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

7. Suckers who have a massively higher median income than practically anywhere else. N.T.

Last edited Tue Jan 20, 2015, 02:15 PM - Edit history (1)

On edit: and that's even after accounting for purchasing power parity.

[RiverLover]

9. That used to be true, not anymore

[Donald Ian Rankin]

15. Except the US started from a long way ahead.

It's not as much ahead now as it was then, but it's still ahead.

And Australia and Canada are also two countries with exceptionally high median income (although still lower than the USA as of 2012) - arguably choosing them as your only two comparison points is cherry-picking

[onehandle]

13. Suckers who overpay for everything to support the 1%.

Taxes are for the little people.

Resources are for the rich.

Tick tock...

[Donald Ian Rankin]

17. You have a higher median income *even when adjusting for purchasing power parity*.

So it's *not* just the very rich - at least half of Americans are doing better financially than practically anywhere else, and probably at a good many centiles below that.

At the lowest centiles, the reverse is true, and those are the centiles that matter most.

But it's important to understand that when deciding between a US-style system and a more redistributive European-style system, that the evidence suggests that the conflict between "probably winners" and "probably losers" is probably *not* "1% vs 99%", it's more like "top 50% vs bottom 50%", or even "top 75% vs bottom 25%" (that would require more detailed analysis than I'm capable of).

[WillyT]

3. K & R !!!

[Luminous Animal]

5. Kick and get off you fucking assess. Just close down your computer

and walk out your door and advocate for an issue that transcends blue red politics.

[Pooka Fey]

8. K&R

[seveneyes]

10. "one gigabit per second – that’s 1000 megabytes per second"

Actually, it's more like 125 megabytes per second.

[dreamnightwind]

14. Yes, thanks for noticing

Saw that too... Still incredibly fast, though the price is pretty high at $70/month.

[Luminous Animal]

18. They have smart network plans for as low as $20 a month.

https://epbfi.com/smartnetwork/

[scarletwoman]

11. Kick

[Enthusiast]

12. K&R! This post should have hundreds of recommendations!

[cyberswede]

16. K&R

Our small town has fiber-optic. It's not a municipal ISP, but a small local company - small enough that everyone in town knows the owner and the employees.

The big telecomm companies would just as soon put this small local company out of business. A$$holes.