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August 13, 2008
How others see us...and a comment about why I like my ISP
Gabriel M. recently arrived in the U.S. from Romania to study for a Ph.D. in economics. I wish him the very best in that endeavor. Today, he gives us a list of observations of the things that have made the biggest impact on him since his arrival. Funny how Americans take some of these for granted. For example,
“Free refills”, a.k.a. all-you-can-drink for a flat fee—for soft drinks that is.
And the sort of thing an economist would notice,
Lower prices than in Romania for most food, household appliances and other basic necessities (at Walmart, for example) and higher prices for almost everything else (at exchange rates).
And unfortunately,
Lower Internet bandwidth at a higher price, compared with what I got back in Bucharest. This is particularly interesting.
We are lagging behind in high speed Internet access, that's for sure. I pay $29.95/month for about 1.5Mbps. I could go faster for a few dollars more, but for most of what I do right now 1.5 is fine. (I don't do a lot of online gaming or Second Life or anything like that.) But I am quite confident that over time I will want more.
But here's the interesting thing.
Three years ago when I signed up for service with my ISP, I got 384kbps for the same $29.95. A couple months after signing up, they improved their service and lowered their rates, so I got about 750kbps for $29.95. Recently, they did it again, this time upgrading me to 1.5Mbps for the same $29.95.
Obviously, I'm hoping that they'll double my speed again in the near future.
The fastest service that I know of in my area is about 16Mbps and that would run about $70/month. Right now I don't see the need for it at that price, but it's nice to have the choice available.
Posted by William Polley at August 13, 2008 3:22 AM
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