>> My employer's Internet connection is *guaranteed* to be 5 Mbit/sec in both 
>> directions at all times. (There are also contractual guarantees about how 
>> quickly the ISP will fix it if it breaks.)
>>

>>
>> How much do you pay for your broadband?
> 
> Ouch!

Yeah, well, it's 5 Mbit/sec IN BOTH DIRECTIONS. (ADSL is typically 5 
Mbit/sec up and 0.5 Mbit/sec down.) And it has service guarantees. And a 
  static IP address. Etc. In other words, it's a business package, not a 
residential package. Hence the price tag.

> However, nobody here expands into rural areas. The reason is simple: if you 
> are in communications and invest into infrastructure, our laws force the 
> companies to "open" their lines to competitors at very cheap rates. So new 
> cables are only places below surface where they can be reasonably sure that 
> enough customers will stay with them to make it worth their while. That is 
> only the case where many people are crammed into very small spaces, like the 
> large cities. Free markets are not always good...

Laws forcing companies to do things doesn't sound like a very "free" 
market to me...

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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