If I lived in Japan, I could have have a 26Mbit DSL connection via Yahoo! BroadBand (Y! BB). Holy crap!
What's it cost, you wonder? A bit less than my 1.5Mbit DSL or 3Mbit Cable in the US.
Think about it this way. In the 20-30 seconds it normally takes to establish a dial-up connection and get an IP address, you could have downloaded 60MB worth of data.
If you don't live close to the central office, you have to suffer with the slower DSL connections: 12Mbit, 10Mbit, or 6Mbit.
Oh, the pain...
Posted by jzawodn at October 22, 2003 12:22 AM
Stay in Japan! I love the fact that you're now posting at a sane-GMT time, so I can pick up your posts at work. :-)
Holy crap is right!
Korea are going the same way I hear with new homes being built with fibre ready installed by the local telco.
I may be getting 8Mb at home soon (because I can - no other reason) so I'll be running along now :)
The difference between countries like Japan and Korea and US is population density.. It's a lot more efficient and cheaper to wire up Japan for fiber than US..
So say... wiring NYC is probably cost efficient.. but the profits made there are offset by the loss in East Bumfuck where only Bubba the local computer geek is using $$$$$ worth of infrustructure and paying $40 a month for it. Hence higher prices and lower speeds in US.
Not that the broadband companies aren't attempting to rip us off as well.. of course they are.
The difference between countries like Japan and Korea and US is population density.. It's a lot more efficient and cheaper to wire up Japan for fiber than US..
So say... wiring NYC is probably cost efficient.. but the profits made there are offset by the loss in East Bumfuck where only Bubba the local computer geek is using $$$$$ worth of infrustructure and paying $40 a month for it. Hence higher prices and lower speeds in US.
Not that the broadband companies aren't attempting to rip us off as well.. of course they are.
I don't know about that, sounds like they're blowing smoke up your you-know-what. I've used Yahoo Broadband (or rather Yahoo!BB) and it's painfully, painfully slow there. The last time I tested it (checking webpages, e-mail, downloading Mozilla, etc) was in the Akasaka area and I maxed our around 30 kilobytes per second. Not bad for Japan's network infrastructure, but compared to my beautiful cable modem in Toronto it's crap.
*sighs* What I'd give for 26Mb/s broadband. My 50kb/s downloads just seem archaic compared to that!
If you live in a strategic area (ie. downtown), you also can get fibre optic connection (100 Mbps) for less than 5000 yen/month.
If you live in a strategic area (ie. downtown), you also can get fibre optic connection (100 Mbps) for less than 5000 yen/month.
Luke:
Are you sure latency wasn't an issue?
Jeremy
Actually, they are now advertizing the 100 mbps fiber on TV for an amazing 500 yen per month.
Oh yeah, I'm sure. The whole 26Mbit stuff is absolutely completely marketing speak. Latency wasn't an issue, as I was transferring stuff back and forth from a colo'd server I manage.
But even businesses there often have really poor Internet connections - stunningly poor. Most of the big name companies have their data centers far from Tokyo (or so I've noticed).
Don't get me wrong though; for connectivity in Japan, 30kb/s is pretty good.
LOL blah blah blah blah blah no matter what speed you have it gets old fast trust me ive been sbc 6 (meg) dsl for a few years only paying $39.99 just be happy your stuff works .....basterds always unhappy with there toys :P 900k a sec is pretty sweet ......click dl down click xpsp2 done .... kinda goes like that :P
I live in Japan, not in central Tokyo or Yokohama, and have had 47Mb/s DSL for about 6 months now. Actual throughput depends on your line quality and distance from nearest switching locale, but mine clocks at an actual 42Mb/s accessing local sites. Costs me about $25/mo including DSL modem and VoIP router rental plus ISP service (English-language provider). I web-cam to my son in Italy and the quality is excellent using an IEEE1394/Firewire webcam (he has 8Mb/s DSL in Rome).
You can get optical fiber at 100Mb/s for anywhere from $50 to $100 for initial installation depending on what floor of your building you are in, etc., including all adapters/modem, terminal , a complete package. Monthly subscription costs on average $15 - $25/mo. Most new buildings already have optical lines to each apartment pre-installed. These are not shared lines with other building tenants, but your own dedicated line 100Mb/s line.
What's amazing is that for DSL, 47Mb/s costs basically the same as 8Mb/s (MINIMUM available speed in Japan for urban areas).
Life is good.
Is there a line fee required or something of the similar?
My wife says that in (the rual Gifu area of) Japan that NTT charges you a fee on top of your ISP monthly fee.
What should one expect to pay (all costs included) in order to get an internet connection when in Japan?
What the...?
I'm living in Saudi Arabia, and the best DSL connection is 512 KB/s.
hey you who have 8,6, and even 1 Mbit...
YOUR VERY LUCKYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
