NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Re: Unbundling rates [ +Administrivia ]
The price per burst rate Mbps isn't comparable between the US and other nations because nearly all other nations have very small usage caps on their wired broadband services. More generous usage caps (or no hard caps) translates to a higher base price so those higher base prices aren't that bad a deal when you're capped on usage. In fact if you're a heavy user, you're getting a steal because the majority of users are paying a little more to subsidize you. Even the controversial (but failed) usage caps proposed by Time Warner dwarfed the typical usage caps of most other nations listed by the OECD. http://www.digitalsociety.org/files/gou/compare-bb-2.png Ranking 9th place at lower monthly costs while offering some of the most generous usage caps is fairly respectable and certainly not the rip off that so many portrait it to be. George -----Original Message----- From: nnsquad-bounces+george_ou=lanarchitect.net@nnsquad.org [mailto:nnsquad-bounces+george_ou=lanarchitect.net@nnsquad.org] On Behalf Of Mischa Beitz Sent: Sunday, August 29, 2010 7:17 PM To: nnsquad@nnsquad.org Subject: [ NNSquad ] Re: Unbundling rates [ +Administrivia ] > * Every responsible study of the rates US operators charge for low-end > broadband and cell calls finds that we have rates among the lowest in > the world; check OECD, Merrill Lynch, any source you want. The carriers > give the service away at the low end and charge more for the high end, > which is as it should be. OECD recently released their 2009 broadband data here: http://www.oecd.org/document/54/0,3343,en_2649_34225_38690102_1_1_1_1,00.html I've only cursorily looked at what seem to be the pertinent data regarding Richard's claim regarding broadband. Here's what I found: In "average monthly subscription price for very low-speed connections" US ranks 9th out of 24 OECD nations. Not bad, but "among the lowest"? 8 out of 24, or fully 1/3 of the other nations, had less expensive average low-end prices than the US. In pricerange per Mbit/s, the low-end of the pricerange places the US at 25th of 30 OECD nations, suggesting that 24 nations have less expensive price offerings when measured in price per Mbit/s. Whether "high-speed" or "low-speed", the OECD data certainly doesn't suggest to me that US broadband providers are "giving the service away". The other graphs seems to suggest a similar picture. However, that's just from a quick glance at the graphs provided by OECD on my way to work this morning, I'm ready to be corrected in my reading of them. Regards, Mischa Beitz -- Mischa Beitz http://mischa.beitz.org