How Bad is the Internet?

[mmr]

Re: How Bad is the Internet?

I wonder what this does to Tunisia's score. (And what sort of similar tools China might have in place.)

Tunisia Altered E-Mails With Big Brother Software

In Tunisia, Big Brother goes by an alias: Ammar 404.

A play on the “Error 404” message for blocked websites, Tunisian bloggers dreamed him up as a fictional front man for the sprawling surveillance state of former ruler Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

Aided directly and indirectly by American and European suppliers, Ammar 404 took control of virtually all electronic communication in Tunisia and turned lives upside down -- even changing the content of e-mails in transit. In this world, Tunisians of all stripes could never be sure if e-mails arrived as sent or at all, or who was reading them.

Asma Hedi Nairi, a former Amnesty International youth coordinator, says e-mails she and her friends exchanged were replaced by messages ranging from random symbols to ads for rental cars. Opponents of the regime toppled in January’s revolution received threatening messages such as “you can run but you can’t hide,” while people with no role in politics found their correspondence snagged if it inadvertently included words flagged as critical of the government....

“It leaves citizens in a persistent state of uncertainty about the security and integrity of their communications,” he says.

Western suppliers used the country as a testing ground. Moez Chakchouk, the post-revolution head of the Tunisian Internet Agency, says he’s discovered that the monitoring industry gave discounts to the government-controlled agency, known by its French acronym ATI, to gain access....

[LorenS]

Re: How Bad is the Internet?

It's been a while, but the last time I was in Europe I paid 10 euros per day for mediocre internet access. It was "free" in China, but I couldn't figure out the directions on how to connect. The directions were in Chinese and the web page fields were labeled in Chinese, but, funny, the characters used to label the login ID and password fields on the instructions did not match the characters used to label the (hopefully?) same fields on the web page.

I don't do WiFi at Starbucks, but is it really that bad here?

I have DSL and I'm happy with it. I don't "stream" videos, I'm happy with my round discs and DVD player. We seldom watch the tube, we have a good local library. The library has a technology the we find quite more appealing than the internet - books (and the library has DVDs as well). We have a decent setup, but the theater still holds some appeal for new release movies (and the $3 theater has not quite available on DVD movies).

My son is required to do a lot of his "research" on the internet. I'm surprised at how crappy most online sources are. The online sources are good for getting information out quickly, but they are crap for detail, depth and objectivity.

More speed or cheaper won't fix most of my internet gripes.

EDIT: My DSL is bundled with my phone service. Phone service is horribly overpriced, but a large part of that is state, federal and local taxes, fees and such. Who would have known that in this computerized age 911 would be so expensive for instance.

[c1ue]

Re: How Bad is the Internet?

It's been a while, but the last time I was in Europe I paid 10 euros per day for mediocre internet access.

Was this via a hotel, internet cafe, or wireless?

Because there are obvious reasons why hotel internet is expensive...

[jpatter666]

Re: How Bad is the Internet?

Tried to embed the picture, but iTulip said too big

http://www.buzzfeed.com/rickye/inter...the-world-201k

http://gigaom.com/broadband/mobile-i...-infographics/

[LorenS]

Re: How Bad is the Internet?

Was this via a hotel, internet cafe, or wireless?

Because there are obvious reasons why hotel internet is expensive...

It was hotel rates that I remember, but hardly anywhere in Europe was free at the time, at least as a business traveler (hotels, airports etc). I was on one of those different country every day tours.

I had not paid for any access in US hotels on a similar trip, but US airports were also lame back then.

[Thailandnotes]

Re: How Bad is the Internet?

"If you live in an area of the US that doesn't have broadband, you probably never will have it."

Here's a clear article explaining the lack of competition...

http://corp.sonic.net/ceo/2011/09/02...dband-duopoly/

I agree that access in Europe is often worse than the US, but I'm comparing the US Asia. I have several friends visiting next week who have lived in China for ten years. I'll ask them about broadband there.

[c1ue]

Re: How Bad is the Internet?

Here's a clear article explaining the lack of competition...

Great find.

I in fact switched over to Sonic.net this year, and have been getting progressively more spoiled by the 10x (yes, 1000%) speedup vs. AT & T.

Of course Webpass then enabled my building so that I can achieve another 500% to 1000% speedup to 100Mbps.

[lektrode]

Re: How Bad is the Internet?

Great find.

I in fact switched over to Sonic.net this year, and have been getting progressively more spoiled by the 10x (yes, 1000%) speedup vs. AT & T.

Of course Webpass then enabled my building so that I can achieve another 500% to 1000% speedup to 100Mbps.

coool - and will checkout tn's links - but sounds like being there in silicon valley has a few more benefits (than being marooned in the middle of the pacific, in a tourism based economy, but least i dont hafta shovel this time of year, so hey ;)

just checked tho:

http://speedtest.net/ = telling me that tween here and the HNL NAP via hawaii.rr.com:

download=9.84mbs
upload=.95mbs
ping=73ms
grade=C or worse that 51% of the US ? (typical, but this might be peak work, after-school hours, so.... it does get better, have seen much better on FTP to pittsburg, where my www server is)

and http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/ tween here and SFO:
down=7.3mbs, up=.94mbs

and http://www.bandwidthplace.com/ = showing about same, so..

bottom line?
my isp is kinda lame at times and yeah its perty pricey, and yeah its only marginally better than verizons wireless 'broadband' and yeah.... maybe we are kinda suckin here in The US, but at least we get to say all the crap we do about all our corporate masters without the jackbooted thugs showing up at the door with their lawyers in tow who will then sue us fer badmouthin em...

that or maybe an 'all expenses paid vacation' to some far outa the way 'resort' in outer mongolia...

right?

uh... we hope, anyway.
;)
all in fun, oh booted ones.

[stealthcat]

Re: How Bad is the Internet?

The first image above seems to indicate that the rankings seem to weight raw speed more heavily than price.

Could one argue that, for the vast majority of the populace, for the state of internet usage today, that speeds in the 3-5 Mbps are just fine? When I upped from ~5Mbps DSL to 15Mbps, yeah the speed was nice, but probably the *upload* speed increase was the more noticeable item.

Once you get over 10Mbps, does anyone other than bittorrent users really care?

I kind of see that as the factor in the US. As long as you're not using dial-up, things go "good enough" for most people. If you can get an introductory-level package for $20 or less (common for DSL, but as stated in the thread - the "basic phone" or "basic cable" is the real overpriced part), what's wrong with that? Does that make us 3rd world?

Also, it looks like (from the chart) the US has ~75% broadband coverage -the same as Japan. That's pretty impressive considering the relative landmass difference between the countries.

[jpatter666]

Re: How Bad is the Internet?

The first image above seems to indicate that the rankings seem to weight raw speed more heavily than price.

Could one argue that, for the vast majority of the populace, for the state of internet usage today, that speeds in the 3-5 Mbps are just fine? When I upped from ~5Mbps DSL to 15Mbps, yeah the speed was nice, but probably the *upload* speed increase was the more noticeable item.

Once you get over 10Mbps, does anyone other than bittorrent users really care?

I kind of see that as the factor in the US. As long as you're not using dial-up, things go "good enough" for most people. If you can get an introductory-level package for $20 or less (common for DSL, but as stated in the thread - the "basic phone" or "basic cable" is the real overpriced part), what's wrong with that? Does that make us 3rd world?

Also, it looks like (from the chart) the US has ~75% broadband coverage -the same as Japan. That's pretty impressive considering the relative landmass difference between the countries.

Given so much more activity these days is video -- yes, people will care. Also keep in mind that speed will fluctuate over the day. The more overcapacity you have, the better off you'll be.

Being in the industry, I well know, any excess capacity (CPU, disk, network) will be absorbed soon enough.

[Thailandnotes]

Re: How Bad is the Internet?

Trust me, when it comes to internet access, large parts of the US are in fact 3rd world. Our house in Virginia is an hour and fifty minutes from D.C. along the Potomac River. The only broadband is at the library. The library has less square footage than a fast food restaurant. It is now open five days a week, but three of those days only for four hours. The people that work there are excellent, but they are despairing. The parking lot is often crowded when it is closed because people are sitting in their cars with their laptops accessing the wifi. I wish I'd taken a picture.

Contrast that to Thailand, semi-rural Thailand, where installation trucks are everywhere, and where every time the price comes down, ISP trucks with loud speakers are crawling through the moo bans announcing the new lower costs.

[BK]

Re: How Bad is the Internet?

I'm I accurate it describing the size of Thailand as "Its total area, which is about twice the size of Wyoming, measures 514,000 square kilometers (198,455 square miles). The length of its coastline measures 3,219 kilometers (2,000 miles)-Read more: Thailand - Location and size, Population, Political parties, Revenues http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/economies/Asia-and-the-Pacific/Thailand.html#ixzz1gW4PslNN"

Comparing Internet Access in tiny countries like Thailand and the United States is a poor comparison. Think of the basic infrastructure you need to deploy to every part of the United States.

[Thailandnotes]

Re: How Bad is the Internet?

Comparing Internet Access in tiny countries like Thailand and the United States is a poor comparison. Think of the basic infrastructure you need to deploy to every part of the United States.

I'm more worried about the cutback of existing services. Water systems are being bought up and consolidated. Instead of replacing old meters, companies are going to flat rates, double and tripling fees for the average user. Power companies are raising rates but cutting back on services. Outages are more frequent and take longer to reverse. Semi-rural communities are trying to partner with private companies to expand broadband only to be rebuffed. Meanwhile cable companies, fearing internet TV, are increasing charges while stealthily reducing bandwidth. It's Monopoly, and they've won until someone overturns the board.

[leegs]

Re: How Bad is the Internet?

I'm I accurate it describing the size of Thailand as "Its total area, which is about twice the size of Wyoming, measures 514,000 square kilometers (198,455 square miles). The length of its coastline measures 3,219 kilometers (2,000 miles)-Read more: Thailand - Location and size, Population, Political parties, Revenues http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/economies/Asia-and-the-Pacific/Thailand.html#ixzz1gW4PslNN"

Comparing Internet Access in tiny countries like Thailand and the United States is a poor comparison. Think of the basic infrastructure you need to deploy to every part of the United States.

If one talks about 'every part of the US', e.g. the plains of Kansas, or the Dakota badlands, etc. your argument makes sense. TN is talking about Virginia, 90 minutes from the nation's capital. Probably a semi-rural region, with lots of mid-upper middle class people. One can get DSL in towns in Northwestern VA, but go 4 miles out of town, and you're out of luck.
So I think the comparison is valid, and the really poor broadband coverage is just ridiculous.

[BK]

Re: How Bad is the Internet?

I agree that we are seeing degrading service in lots of utility providers. But, the comparison between Virginia and Thailand is a big stretch.
Population of Virginia 7 Million
Population of Thailand 70 Million (Ten fold bigger)

Looks like Thailand has twice the Population density of Virginia - if I'm doing my math right.

Virginia Area is 42,774 square miles
Thailand - 198,456 square miles