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Originally Posted by Ignitionnet
The geography of Japan also lends itself to such an enterprise.
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Not really. Most of Japan is rural, and while the 1Gb services are only available in cities they do manage an average speed of 22Mb/sec for the entire country.
In cities they benefit from having an unbundled infrastructure. Poles and ducts are all available for providing services. It would be a bit like if the government here allowed anyone to run their own cable in Virgin's trunks or attach them to BT's poles. Well, even electricity ducts and the could be used.
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Here we have regulations in place which actively prevent the incumbent from replacing copper with fibre and levy taxation on investments in infrastructure along with 'NIMBY' attitudes towards infrastructure deployment and a serious lack of joined up thinking in civil engineering work.
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Indeed. It should be like the national grid pylons. We need them. Can't afford to bury them. Let's just get on with it.
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One big thing Japan has that we dont - cable forests.
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Those are extreme examples. I have been trying to fine a photo I took while there that shows some cables but I can't... I know there is at least one but I don't seem to have scanned it (had an analogue camera back then!)
There are certainly more cables on poles in Japan but they are usually fairly tidy and well maintained. They pride themselves on doing a good job of things and keep the place amazingly clean.
Anyway, it's no worse than satellite dishes IMHO. What about TV antennas for that matter? People must have objected to them in much the same way when the first came in, ditto telephone poles.
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Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq
Japan also has three times the suicide rate of our country. Don't suppose you wanna catch up on that too?
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That is mainly because they do not suffer from Christian views on suicide. Christianity considers suicide to be a sin, and even though we are no longer a Christian country* we still have those hang ups about it. It seems odd because if an animal is in pain with no chance of recovery we put it out of it's suffering, but if a person is in a similar situation and asks for assistance we can't do the same without potentially breaking the law.
In Japan suicide is seen as an acceptable option in certain circumstances. Trying to explain them here is futile as words like "honour" and "respect" mean something very different there, but suffice it to say that the higher rate is attributable in large part to a different attitude on the subject rather than life being less bearable or worth living.
* If you need proof look at how we have diverged on issues like homosexuality, contraception, abortion, blasphemy, moral relativity etc.