At 03:37 PM 5/29/01 +0000, bmanning@vacation.karoshi.com wrote:
Why does BW cost so much?
It might make more sense to ask "Why is bandwidth so cheap (and getting cheaper so fast) in the US?" The simple answer is: Moore's law, competition (leading to a "fiber glut") and economies of scale.
If you're across an ocean from the US, you have to factor in the cost of running underwater cable.
Actually, this was/is a troll. BW costs outside the US are high because of two things: ) International tariffs based on voice traffic profiles. )local tariffs from monopoly carriers that contribute significant % of a soverigns GDP. The first is a legacy holdover that should be revised. The second is a tough nut to crack. Trans-oceanic capabilities will remain a bottleneck, but they are not as problematic as in the previous decade. Witness Tyco or any of the other folk that have cable-laying capability. Last year they had waiting lines for boats. Now the boats are idle. Too much capacity in water and no-one taking it up. (see first point above) YMMV. --bill