Wow

[kronas]

Originally posted by ic14
Please do.....

but your wish will not be granted you know why because i am content with this country maybe if i win the lottery

as i said before it wouldnt stop me posting on here so does not make a tiny bit of diffarence of where the location is :p

[keithwalton]

I know your all saying how great canada and this isp are, if they were in scandanvia they would be nowhere.
Isp's such as bbb have been doing 10mbit duplex connections (up and down shared like ethernet) there for a few years now and are about the price of 600k ntl.
And recently not to be outdone other companies not to be outdone are now starting to offer upto 22mbit connections to residential clients for peanuts.

The uk has a fine academic internet connection in places just retail sucks. who's fault is this ? well bt, ntl and telewest are equally to blame for there high prices and determination to make us fall further behind the rest of the world.

It would be good if somone out there could do a report on the avaliability, speed and cost of broadband around the world. From the folk i know uk is behind the rest of europe, north america, australia and large parts of asia.

K

[kronas]

Originally posted by keithwalton
I know your all saying how great canada and this isp are, if they were in scandanvia they would be nowhere.
Isp's such as bbb have been doing 10mbit duplex connections (up and down shared like ethernet) there for a few years now and are about the price of 600k ntl.
And recently not to be outdone other companies not to be outdone are now starting to offer upto 22mbit connections to residential clients for peanuts.

The uk has a fine academic internet connection in places just retail sucks. who's fault is this ? well bt, ntl and telewest are equally to blame for there high prices and determination to make us fall further behind the rest of the world.

K

yep sweden are the best for the fastest net connections but there goverment subsidises there BB so they can provide it cheaper

i was thinking our goverment could do the same help schools colleges etc in return for the investment..................

[Dupre]

OK, to sort out the problem of why uk internet is more expensive you have to look at the infrastructure of the network, namely that the US is mostly fibre optics and/or has been digital exchanges for some time, where BT only really updated to those systems in the 90s, before that it was mechanical exchanges (dont ask!) So there networks are more upto date before they start.

Local call charges are none existant over there, so ISPs originally had no method to provide competition, so they resorted to upping the bandwidth limits, improving quality of service and such, where in the UK, companies had to pay high call charges, then down to local rate, still 60pence an hour, then down to 0800, which costs more than that, now to friaco. its a long transition from £1.20 a minute + isp cost to the current £6.99 a month for unlimited. So the introduction of broadband had to wait for these transgressions to fizzle out before the telcos would actually update to digital. It will take a few years yet for us to catch up the rest of the internet big players, simply because we were so far behind to begin with, theres no reasons other than those why we pay alot more for the services we get, and why its poorer service than other countries.

For a contrast, look at mobile phones, in that respect we are ahead of most of the world, simply because it didnt catch on in places like the USA as it did here, we're a nation of "fad" people, if its "in" we want it, so thats why we're heading into the 3G era, and the US are lagging behind in tri-band, as are alot of europe.

Every country has its downfall in technology, unfortunately ours is the largest thing in the world well... need i say more, we invent something then become crap at it... (Football ;-)

[Jerrek]

I could never understand why you'd pay for local calls. Eh. Thats just retarded... Calling your girlfriend and then worrying about call charges? I mean, come on...

And ya, cellphone didn't really catch on here... There is simply not a great need for them. Other than keeping one for an emergency, I don't have any other reason for one. (They charge for local calls, so that is retarded.)


Now I have to disagree with the Sweden statement. Korea and Japan are probably doing better. Korea is aiming for 22 Mbps or more, and 70% of the population has cable. In Japan, you can buy 100 Mbps for $60 a month. Now reasons? Well, both Japan and Korea are small. Lots of people, but small. Running cable and fiber isn't that hard, and you can easily put a thick glass pipe in and serve thousands of people. In Canada, we have 9 million square kilometers of area and 30 million people. In the United States there are 8.9 million square kilometers and 270 million people. Lots of area to develop, and it isn't that easy.

Also keep in mind that in Sweden you pay upwards of 60% in taxes. In Denmark, VAT is 25%, minimum income bracket is taxed at 44%, and the highest bracket (over $33,000 a year) is taxed at 65%. Futhermore, cars are taxed at 180%. Eh.

[Lord Nikon]

Originally posted by Jerrek
[snip]
And ya, cellphone didn't really catch on here... There is simply not a great need for them. Other than keeping one for an emergency, I don't have any other reason for one. (They charge for local calls, so that is retarded.)
[snip] Eh.

Plus, in the UK we don't have to pay to RECEIVE a call on a cellphone....

[Jerrek]

Well, to understand why you pay to receive a call, you must look a little deeper into the telecommunications industry.

In North America (and countries that use the North American Numbering Plan, i.e. countries with country code 1 [U.S., Canada, Guam, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Haiti, etc.]), a phone number has three parts and is formed as follows:

NPA-NPX-XXXX.

NPA is the area code. NPX is the exchange code. XXXX is the line number. Calls are classified into two main categories. Local and long distance.

A local call is defined by a fixed geographic area. This can be part of an area code, the entire area code, other area codes, and part of other area codes. For example, Toronto itself has an area code of 416, but the surrounding area has an area code of 905. All calls made in the 905 area to 416 are considered local, and vice versa. But if you want to make a call from 905 to 905 and the call has to go through the 416 area, it can be long distance.

(The technical detail of a local call is any call that can be completed by a level 5 switch. A level 5 switch can take call, complete a call, and hand it to other switches. If only level 5 switches are required to complete the call, it is local.)

Local calls are not charged. They are included in your line rental from your local carrier. Your local carrier is responsible for completing local calls only. In my case, I use Bell Canada, but I can pick from AT&T, Sprint, and various other companies.

A long distance call requires a level 4 switch to complete it. To gain access to a level 4 switch, you must dial a prefix before the number. For direct dialling it is a "1." If you try to call a local number and use the "1" you will get a recording telling you that the call can't be completed as dialled (and it is indeed not possible, since you requested a level 4 switch and a level 4 switch will not connect to the same level 5 switch twice). If you want help, or an operator, you can dial a "0" before the number.

"011" is a special prefix... It indicates that you want to access a DSM-500 switch located in either Chicago, New York, or Seattle (*all* international telephone traffic goes through those points, period.).



ANYWAYS, back on track... Long distance is not so free. At the moment I pay 3 UK pence a minute for calls anywhere in North America. I don't make too many long distance calls, but if I did, I can get unlimited North America calling for about 9 UK pounds a month. Or unlimited European calling for 30 UK pounds a month. Etc.




So, come cellphones. Cellphone companies "buy" exchanges. For example, the exchange 519-722-xxxx is owned by Fido, my cellphone company. So if someone in the 519 area makes a local call to me, 519-722-1111, he is not charged. But who pays for the call? I mean, more than one company is involved in terminating the call.

So, you pay it if you own the cellphone. If you make a long distance call to the cellphone, you still pay for receiving the call.

So, airtime was introduced. For a given deal, you would get X minutes of airtime. Local calls made, and all calls received, goes down your airtime. If you make a long distance call from your cellphone, it costs airtime + long distance charges.

For me, I get 1,000 weeknight and weekend minutes and 250 weekday minutes per month for 15 UK pounds. Long distance calls are an extra 5 UK pence a minute. Any minutes over those assigned are charged at 7 UK pence a minute.


Personally I don't have a use for a cellphone other than an emergency tool. I don't make an awful lot of calls, and I certainly don't receive too many calls. I am usually near some kind of phone, and at home I have a toll free number for myself and my parents. That way I, or my dad, or a friend, can call me at anytime, from anywhere in North America from a payphone for free, and I will be charged 5 UK pence a minute. So ya, if I get stranded in Nevada, a cellphone is useful (if there is coverage...), but otherwise there is the toll free number...

[MadGamer]

Edit - Off topic post removed

[Lord Nikon]

Post count probably lol....

Incidentally Jerrek
I pay nothing for one of my cellphones, it is a prepay one, I put £20 on it 3 months ago and still have credit to call out. My phone line at home is not toll free, but neither are the cellphones, calls from my phone to a UK landline are free (excluding special rate numbers) and my calls to the US are billed at 2p per minute...

My argument is if someone wants to call me on my cellphone, then why shouldn't they foot the bill for it?

In the UK we have the prefix of 0800 for toll free numbers, 0870 for special rate billed as long distance, 07 for cellphones, 01 for normal geographic numbers, 090 for special rate high cost and 0845 for special rate local calls, also add the most recent of 118 for effectively a 411 call

The concept is simple, if the call starts 07 then you are calling a cellphone and will be billed accordingly.


Though I think the canadian system is betterfor cable.. synchronous lines, higher than 1mbit and much better prices.