News Full speed ahead for Japan's broadband

From the Beeb:

Here in Japan, ADSL is a firmly established technology, with the locally owned arm of Yahoo, called Yahoo BB, the market-leading net service provider.

This summer, Yahoo BB signed up its three millionth customer for services running at eight and 12Mbps.

This success was almost entirely down to the aggressive marketing masterminded by parent company Softbank's CEO Masayoshi Son.

For the last year, it has been nigh on impossible to take a stroll in the capital without being asked, "Yahoo BB wa ikaga desu ka? (How about Yahoo BB?)," by one of Mr Son's army of street salespeople ready to sign you up and send you on your way with an ADSL modem in a bag.

Now, with the latest tranche of upgrades taking the maximum download speed to a blazing 26Mbps - remember, this is still over standard telephone lines, just like in the UK - one can be forgiven for wondering why BT and its competitors are languishing in the slow lane.

Full story (That'll make you weep - be warned) here

Don't believe me on the weeping front? (here, you better have a hankie. /GOO passes out the Kleenex) Read on:

 

My 10Mbps conneciton costs $125! Of course thats just the University trying to get a profit...

 

£20 for 26mbps?!?!?!? really does make you want to

 

Unbelievable. Just outright unbelievable. That's like $34usd - for a friggin 26mbps connection! I'm paying $45 for a sucky 512k cable connection!

It really doesn't make me want to cry, it actually ticks me off. I mean the US is supposed to be one of the advanced and rich countries, but yet I can't even GET dsl or asdl where I live because of the stupid telephone compay (Verizon) cutting costs to boost profits and executive saleries.

/me has to go calm down now

 

the pricing and availability is clearly due to the dense polulation of our Oriental neighbours. Most western countries have a dispersed population.

still though:

 

Maybe so, but I don't buy it. The infrastructure is here, I can get a dedicated T1 and a T3 to my house which is in a rural village (1900 people) but yet, no ultra high-speed access on the cheap.

 

nothing is cheap unless its sold in volume.

one PC costs £2000

10,000 PC's cost £1000

 

Fully understandable. However, look at the penetration that cable broadband has. If you offered a lower cost & higher bit-rate service, I for one would be in line to drop my cable and sign up with you and I know many, many more who would too.

 

I'm paying 249 sek/month (which is around $30/month) for my 100mbit broadband connection. No limits either nor any installation cost.

 

****er

 

Nice first post there Laahn! I bet u registered just to rub it in! ******!

hehe only joking, welcome to the boards.

 

Thanks, been checking out the forum for quite some time, maybe not the best first post ever though

 

Man i hate you im stuck on 56k until january then i thought i was getting an uber fast connection (a 10mbit) in january but then u go and take the piss with your 100mbit. Believe me if one cost that much over here i think 80% of people would have it.

Anyway welcome to the posts in uber fast mode. Please don't rub it in.

 

I am paying £40/month for my 1mbps with Zen. This just takes the rip to be honest. The question is how do we do anything about it? BT has a complete monopoly on the phone lines and they embody sloth.

Someone hack into directors/md personal accounts and freeze them. The demand to unfreeze them of course is VDSL for the entire country to every exchange

The government has to subsidise part of the cost, so can we call broadband another semi public service? I would rather have better services than pay for the 90% useless part of the government, throw away projects, immigrants and pointless wars.

 

I dont believe it, i'm stuck in EXACTLY the same situation! Where do you live (i'm in santa barbara)(CA)

 

Central NY, 'bout 20 miles west of Syracuse.

You all see that friggin KOREA is going to do a 100mbps net!?

 

I live in the middle of Cambridge and I can't get anything other than 56k (which runs at about 48k) at home

So not fair.

Rob.

 

just wondering... shared line ?