Hong Kong Residents Offered Gigabit Internet for $26 a Month
Hong Kong Residents Offered Gigabit Internet for $26 a Month
Posted 03/06/2011 at 4:38pm
| by Justin Kerr
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Do you spend you days and nights lusting after Verizon’s 50Mbps Fiber to the home service? Well if Internet access was like a game of poker, Hong Kong would see your Fios, and raise you another 950Mbps. Yes, you read that correctly. Citizens of Hong Kong can now subscribe to gigabit internet if they so choose. Of course speed comes at a price right? Wrong! 1Gbps fiber service from a scrappy new company called Hong Kong Broadband Network costs less than $26 per month on average. This leaves us not just jealous, but wondering, would this even be possible in North America?
According to The New York Times 1Gbps broadband speeds are not only possible here in North America, but all the major ISP’s know exactly what it would take to get us there. The problem? Motivation. Since most markets in North America are served by one cable, and one DSL provider, the telecom companies here have little incentive to build out much more expensive Fiber based networks. The cost of laying fiber could be easily monetized if multiple telecoms were willing to share the tab, but this type of partnership would require a massive intervention by the FCC, and they just don’t see that happening anytime soon.
Companies like Google, in partnership with Sonic.net will soon be offering gigabit service soon to thousands of American’s in select areas at “affordable prices”, but it remains to be seen when, if ever, the vast majority of North Americans will be offered a 1Gbps connections for anywhere near $26. Heck, at those speeds I could accidentally plow through my current bandwidth cap in about 5 minutes flat.
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TenzoMonk
March 08, 2011 at 8:32am
Laughable how many ppl think HongKong = China. That, with all the "intelligent" political comments... it's no wonder the government has most of "us" fooled. Ahhh... Politics... corrputing the minds of intelligent men for 1000's of years!
PS - Repubes and Dumbocrats don't care about you ;)
bling581
March 07, 2011 at 10:58am
One thing that really stumps me is how the ISP monopolies have been allowed to happen and exist for so long. I live in a highly populated area and there's 2 whole ISP's to choose from, AT&T and Time Warner. A true monopoly would be only one company but even with two there's little competition. I pay $52 a month for 7mbps connection. Just imagine if Net Neutrality is ever defeated and the IPS's are allowed to put in tiered plans with a data cap. We'll all be paying through the nose.
Gumby
March 07, 2011 at 7:26am
I am an American, but I live and work in Germany. Here it is very common to have a 50mb DSL connection or a 100mb cable connection at very affordable rates. The 100mb cable costs 39 Euros/month. To me, the difference seems to be competition. There are at least three major DSL providers everywhere I have lived in Germany. Most places in the USA, there is DSL from a Baby-Bell or Cable from whoever has the local monopoly. If you want more speed, at a reasonable cost, you will need more competition. Otherwise there is nothing motivating the ISPs to improve their infrastructure.
Markitzero
March 07, 2011 at 8:56am
So True
Were I live it is a rural area and the only landline provider in my area is Verizon and that had limited slots on dsl before Oct09 but in oct all the slots filled and when I moved were I am "Phelan, CA" there was no more DSL and all they could offer was Dial-up. Since there is no other provider like clearwire"WiMAX" or cable internet they don't see it profitable to upgrade and add more DSL or start laying there FiOS lines. I have talked to lots of people just at the grocery store alot of people want Broadband and can't get it because Verizon does not see it profitable. It has been 2 years and Verizon has not touched there switching station since Oct 09.
The Sprint 3G tower is slow were I am because there is so many people using it for home broadband like with the Service I have.
chipmunkofdoom2
March 07, 2011 at 6:19am
Most people don't really have a grasp on how far a dollar goes in China. Depending on which site you trust (it's hard to get accurate information out of a government like that of China's), Google will tell you the average Chinese family's income is $1,500 to $3,000 a month. In rural areas, it's closer to $300 - $500. We'll say you're at the top end of that figure and make $3000 annually.. that means you make about $250 monthly (BEFORE TAXES!!) and that "$26 Gigabit Internet" is 10% of your monthly salary. For a person who makes around $55,000 in the US, that's equivalent to almost $500 a month. That's no bargain.
My complaint with the telecos has never been the speed, it's been the cost. If you're willing to pay enough, you can get as much speed as you want. You can pay for a T3 line (or multiple lines) right to your home. If you really work with the cable/phone company, you can probably get a fiber line dropped right to your house and you could probably work out a contract with them to get close to Gigabit speeds. You'll be paying 2 arms and a leg for it though. That's per month.
Speed is nothing new. There are acceptable to blazing fast services all over these days. What would be GREAT news is affordably priced, fast internet. Until then, I don't want to hear about your $150+ a month FIOS or X-Finity. Lower your prices or you haven't done anything that spectacular.
ymichaelx
March 07, 2011 at 11:59am
Sorry to tell you chipmunk that Hong Kong is China but not really, so while your statement of $3000 US annual income for the average Chinese family is quite valid in the mainland proper, it does not however apply to the Special Administrative District that is Hong Kong. The majority of residents in Hong Kong are foreign nationals working for companies that have offices in Hong Kong, and therefore are paid a wage comparative to their home countries. I don't think you'll find anyone working for a big bank like HSBC making $3000 US annually. It is more likely that their wage will be above the average family income in the US of $55,000 annually. And that makes $26 US per month for 1 Gigabit Internet very cheap indeed.
MrPC2010
March 07, 2011 at 5:30am
lol... here in Quebec, for 28.95$/month you can only have 3mb/s with a 4go bandwith limit with the biggest ISP of the province... To get a decent speed and bandwith limit, it increase to 43$/month... Ridiculous. The fastest available is at 120mb/s for 150$/month and a 210go bandwith limit.
pendar
March 07, 2011 at 5:04am
You can call it a Monopoly, Not much of choice when you only have cable and a dsl company to choose from. If it wasn't for Satellite TV we would still have crappy TV service. With so few companies competing they are to cheap to upgrade and even cap your bandwidth because there to cheap to add more nodes and they oversaturate them with to many people on one node. Welcome to Monopoly USA.
aviaggio
March 07, 2011 at 12:28am
But but but... we have FREEDOM and DEMOCRACY!!! Aren't they enough???
ShyLinuxGuy
March 07, 2011 at 1:13am
Not really...we have too many politicians with Little Man syndrome (typically the liberals) who take away our freedoms and democracies one by one.
Back OT: We aren't there yet because of 1) read statement above and 2) there's too much bureauacracy for it to happen.After finding out that there's paperwork raised to the power of 1e999, dealing with the FCC, the FTC, this and that, paying $15 million here, $200 million there--before even laying down the first line--companies scrap the idea, and I don't blame them. Our government won't allow it to happen (I admit, the Republicans do have some fault in this too...)
hades_2100
March 07, 2011 at 7:58am
Same process here in Canada. No competition = high prices = sucks.
Carlidan
March 07, 2011 at 3:09am
That's funny because it sure looks like it's republicans, aka conservatives who has this little man syndrome. Because if I'm not mistaken correctly, they are passed the patriot act, protesting against mosques, denying civil unions for gay and lesbians, taking away collective bargining from employees. It sure sounds more like conservatives have this " Little Man" syndrome your talking about.
someuid
March 07, 2011 at 9:12am
You are right, Carlidan. The republicans are far more invovled in reducing individual's rights. I find that frustrating because I am a republican and don't like what has happened to my party. Its been taken over by ignorant loudmouths and overly greedy corporate types who have no care or concern for the humans they have built their empire on.
Carlidan
March 07, 2011 at 1:52pm
It's sad because not all republicans are for corparate america but are for the american people but are too afraid to stand up against their party. :(
Vella1tj
March 07, 2011 at 8:26am
Most of the Patriot Act has Sunset, and it does not care about mosques or denying civil unions. It talks specifically about monitoring Americans (which I think is bullshit), please know your facts and don't just blatenly talk about something you heard on the news without researching.
On a side not it's the greedy politicians and the smart business planning (cable companies know how to business) they have a contract that they can sell their services for whatever amount, and the US got in return cable lines ran accross america. It costs very little amount of money for your service, and from what I've heard they make in excess of 200% of some services especially with phone lines.
Carlidan
March 07, 2011 at 1:27pm
Where did I ever say the patriot act denied civil unions or mosques. If you actually read what I wrote, I was just giving examples of what republicans are doing. They republicans use to be the people who actually believed in small government. But now believe in the wild west for corporate america. They just want to limit goverment so corporations can run amok. They are not working for the middle class as the potray themselves as to be. Republicans are now the christian conservatives party who want to push their morality to every american citizen.
RUSENSITIVESWEETNESS
March 07, 2011 at 4:59am
Mitch Daniels, the Nazi from Indiana, exemplifies the Little Man syndrome. Fueling his need for power and authority by destroying the middle class, Daniels is currently vying for the Presidency.
Let's just call Republicans the "Greed is Good" party.
Cleaver
March 07, 2011 at 10:36am
Not sure how thats on topic, RUSENSITIVESWEETNESS, so I hereby invoke Godwin's Law.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwins_law
By comparing Republicans to Nazis (I should point out, not all republicans are like that, so quit your generalizations) you have hereby failed this discussion.
OT: Internet that fast and at that price would be excellent to have. So there.
franciscomedinav
March 06, 2011 at 9:16pm
Come on people !!! right now, at this moment, in this internet era, who regular user needs a 1gbps internet connection ??? To read emails ? To watch netflix movies or hulu or youtube ?? I can do that and more, with my wimax "4G" 5mbps connection, i pay 45 per month, unlimited data, from Clearwire;
Markitzero
March 06, 2011 at 11:38pm
Try being in a Area were there is only 3G EVDO for broadband other then Satellite. I can barely get over 200Kbps at night and 50-70Kbps during the day with a ping from 100-500.
compguytracy
March 06, 2011 at 8:39pm
what a bunch of whiners, oooh boo hoo, my isp is slow. then turn off the damn computer, internet in not a right, it is a priviledge, geez, douchbags, get a life. a choice to forgo food for connectivity, that is addiction in the classic sense. rats used to forgo food for crack, til they died, hows the maze there chucky?
Markitzero
March 06, 2011 at 7:17pm
lol were I live it is eaither Dial-up, 3G, or satellite internet. I am on 3G because I need Realtime fuction and alot of times i am under 100Kbps alot of times because of so many people on it.
I live in a Rural area in California
Samjabr
March 06, 2011 at 6:25pm
The US did in fact create the internet. Search for Arpanet on Google to become more educated.
CERN created Hyper text transfer protocol
Webbers created the WWW.
Essentially, if you are talking about a bunch of computers interconnected together across a large distance you are talking about the U.S. creation. It was developed between the military and universities to enable communication in case a war disabled our traditional communication systems.
Nate.Gil
March 06, 2011 at 8:26pm
Who's Webbers?
The World Wide Web was invented by Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau in 1990.
Blaze589
March 06, 2011 at 6:21pm
Relative to how much the Chinese get paid it's a lot of money. I doubt that a lot of people can afford it.
http://www.worldsalaries.org/china.shtml
Tenhawk
March 06, 2011 at 6:58pm
It's Hong Kong, dude, not Mainland China. Remember, the standard of living there was established by the british, and it's kept it's strongly capitalist roots. It has it's own entry on the site you referenced, specifically because the salarys are so different.
http://www.worldsalaries.org/hongkong.shtml
zodi
March 06, 2011 at 6:10pm
Our local cable provider is rolling out 1Gbps here in Calgary, AB Canada. They already have 150Mbps service for a nice wallet draining $150 a month.
The catch with 1Gbps is only to new e-communities with Fiber to Premises (fiber optics to your house panel). For S***s and giggles I checked out the communities where they are testing it.
Average starting price for a house is 1.7million. Guess they can afford it!
Currently on 15Mbps for $50 a month.
Eoraptor
March 06, 2011 at 5:53pm
while I'm sutre there's something to be said about hong kong being a tightly packed, urban area where you don't have to span long distances or do a lot of trenching...
We Americans in the know KNOW that we're continually being shafted. I'm typing this on a 256k DSL connection because the ISPs in america are under no impetus to build out their infrastructure, no it;'s far cheaper to instigate cripping bandwidth caps and charge outrageous overages and then sit on the money or hand it out to stock holders.
why is it again that socialism and state-run competition is a bad thing again?
fullur
March 06, 2011 at 10:25pm
Because what we have IS state-run competition. Exclusive right-of-way is something the government grants. Our current system is the worst of both worlds. We have neither free enterprise nor government supported enterprise.
someuid
March 07, 2011 at 9:19am
We do not have state run competition. We have regional monopolies handed out by the government and little oversight to ensure competitors are given any kind of fair access.
If we have state-run competition, the federal government would separate the owners of the cable/fiber from the service providers. The owners of the cable/fiber woudl be heavily regulated in regards to contract with service providers, costs they charge, and how much their network was built out.
We have the exact opposite. The cable company owns their cable and provide their service. The telephone company owns their cable and the service, and are not closely watched to ensure competitors have access.
Hamburger
March 06, 2011 at 5:40pm
The US invents the internet but is getting smoked by other countries. Hell some people still don't have decent internet speeds nor performance.. some still only have the option of DIALUP or RF or even worse.. satellite.. my ISP only offers up to 6mb. I DREAM of 50mb... much less 1GB!!!
zNelson24
March 06, 2011 at 7:57pm
While the U.S. may have created the internet, corporate interests and the government's ignorance and lack of adaptation to this new information age has drastically hindered innvoation and ability to bring such speeds stateside.
blimpboy3
March 06, 2011 at 5:57pm
the us did not invent the internet. it was created by the people controlling the LRC a few decades ago in europe
TheZomb
March 06, 2011 at 6:57pm
Actually, the US invented the internet, it was called ARPAnet at the time before it was renamed, CERN was just the first non military users of the internet. Might want to read up on the complete history before you go correcting people. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Internet
Brock Kane
March 06, 2011 at 5:12pm
Hey it's all about money here in the great old USA! Greed and power overcomes any pride for Internet speed here. Hell, we invented the Internet, yet our broadband speeds are 33rd on the list of countries that offer broadband. 33rd!
Why should we have the speeds of Hong Kong here in the USA, the ISP's have fat wallets from 16 meg speeds for $60 a month! Why should the ISP's give a rats ass! They have all the money they want by gouging our wallets thin by offering a couple of more megs per year for another 10 fricking dollars!
But, I'm not bitter, no no. I love this greedy ass country we live in. It's great! Now let's see if I have enough money for groceries this week after paying my cable bill!
acidic
March 06, 2011 at 4:52pm
money dont rule all countries like it does here in the US. i remember paying 70/month for 2mb cable as soon as it was available in my area. with more and more things becoming streaming hd, we need faster and faster internet to take advantage of it. but, no one is making our speeds any faster
whathuhitwasntme
March 06, 2011 at 4:45pm
yeah 1gbs but when you are censored and the network gets shut off by your government because they fear the citizens, what good does it do you to have it?
would be great to have here in the states but like you said, it wont happen anytime soon until they find a way to make you pay out the ears for it
lordmidnight
March 06, 2011 at 9:05pm
That's mainland China, not Hong Kong. When Google had its row with Beijing, they just redirected traffic from google.cn (mainland China, and censored by the government) to google.com.hk (Hong Kong, uncensored). This allowed people in mainland China uncensored access to Google search results. That didn't sit well with the Chinese censors, so the threatened to shut down google.cn. That would have blocked the citizens of mainland China from getting uncensored search results, but Hong Kong would have remained unaffected. They know they've already lost those people; they were under British rule for too long.
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