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Comment by mschuster91 | Hacker News Reader

Usually I'd agree with you, but Switzerland has the advantage that 2/3rds of its population live in extreme density for European standards (426 ppl/km², [1]). The denser the population, the more cost-efficient the buildout of any infrastructure is.

Additionally, Switzerland is all but drowning in money (in fact, they have to fight to keep the Swiss Franc affordable [2]) because everyone and their dog who can afford it parks their dark money there. That influx of wealth is reflected in the services and wages that the citizens get.

[1] https://www.avenir-suisse.ch/wie-dicht-ist-die-schweiz-besie...

[2] https://www.handelsblatt.com/finanzen/geldpolitik/schweizer-...

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Although the density thing is true, the entire population of the country of Switzerland is less than that of a large metropolitan area (e.g. London) so while it might not be possible to have Swiss level infrastructure in rural US areas it should be perfectly possible in major cities.

Put more concretely: the population of NYC proper (ignoring the broader metro) and Switzerland are pretty comparable (both around 8-9m people), but NYC is about 50x more dense (300 mi² vs 16000).

But the Swiss poulation is not evenly spread over it's land area.

While that's true, the two densest cities in Switzerland are Geneva (~12k / km^2) and Basel (~7k / km^2).

NYC sits at about 11k / km^2. Unless 10Gbps internet and up in Switzerland is only available in Geneva, there's clearly more than just population density at play.

The funny part is that parts of the rural US have better internet speeds than the cities. Rural Electric Cooperatives do like their fiber. Carrington ND has a billboard proclaiming the availability of 10Gbe fiber to the home.

These are really half-baked thoughts.

1. As you may know half of Switzerland is filled with mountains, so building infrastructure there is actually not that trivial (no, the high speeds are not just in the big cities, they're everywhere).

2. Dark money in Switzerland hasn't been a thing for a while. The wealth comes from sensible policies like a sovereign currency, low taxes and reasonable levels of regulation and bureaucracy. All that money also makes everything expensive, so the extra money kind of cancels out when it comes to doing stuff inside Switzerland.

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