A 100mbs connection in Stockholm is $11 a month | Hacker News Reader

A 100mbs connection in Stockholm is $11 a month

cis471.blogspot.com

6 pointsquoderat10 comments

The price $11 is probably the best market price they managed to find in Stockholn. It is not like you only need to pay $11 a month and you will get 100Mbps wherever you live in Stockholm. It is not socialism that gets you 100Mbps in Stockholm (but silly simpleton republicans: it is NOT NOT-socialism that gets it either). Sweden has always been ahead on telecom and we happen to think it is important.

The municipal owned black-fibre company is http://www.stokab.se/

For some sample prices: I currently pay 320 SEK for 10/10 Ethernet (my condo is 3 years old and is wired, but on a 5 year lock-in contract with the company that wired the condo). The cable company offers 8/24 for 319 SEK. No deal.

A friend of mine gets 10/100 for 239 SEK, also ethernet. It is rental apt, they all have been wired by the owners to stay competitive / attractive. This is quite common. Another variant is that the power-company wires apartments with ethernet. A collegue has that and gets 10/10 at 195 SEK or 100/100 at 235 SEK. This is usually combined with freedom to select operator, who bundles various non-internet services over wires, such as digital-tv or phone (and as such they compete with price AND service bundle).

If your house hasnt been ethernet wired you're stuck on ADSL or cable modems, and the price level is around 200-400 SEK (this is typically bundled with digital-tv and phone as well).

Most of the end-user prices that are in par with the $11 from the article are lucky bastards. One collegue pays 89 SEK a month for 100/100 ethernet, which is less than $11 with current exchange rates. His condo owns the last-mile wiring and can chose the lowest-bidding operator to connect them to inet.

In two years my condo's 5 year contract have expired, our last-mile wiring is ours to control, and I too hope to be in a similar sweet spot to chose the lowest bidder.

Good deal. I'll pay 20k a year extra in taxes, but I'll save 30 bucks a month off internet

That's not the compromise. You pay 20k a year extra in taxes, and save 30 bucks a month on pretty much every service you could be spending 30 bucks a month on. It adds up, especially when you consider that some things that you'd pay less for here are just of absolute crap quality, and you'd likely pay to upgrade here (like, say, paying for extra medical coverage) to take you to the base "free" level provided there.

Unless you don't want that service and are therefore subsidizing it for everyone else.

Oh god yes, if only I could opt out of that terrible $11 100Mbps internet! How dare they fulfil their basic governmental mandate to take advantage of natural economies of scale to offer high quality basic services at a low price.

The real cost isn't 11$, and it's debatable whether there is a government mandate to take advantage of natural economies of scale. I for one, don't believe that.

Got your own private sewerage line hooked up then, do you? Made a deal with a nearby power company to run some lines down to your house? Paid up your subscription to the Fire Fighters' Guild?

Delivering basic services en masse is one of the core functions of government. Everyone going it alone is far less efficient. I struggle to think of a single example of a situation where organising utitily provisions individually is a better idea. Internet access is now a utility and it is being treated as one in progressive countries. How can you argue with that?

If you live outside of major population areas, yes you often have private water, sewage, and hell in some places you have to opt to pay taxes to a neighboring towns fire department if you want service. I see nothing wrong with that. Oh, and lots of cities have private energy and water companies so I don't see what the problem is there?

Why would you treat internet access differently than you would the telephone? Also, think of the massive improvement in telephone service once the government imposed monopoly of AT&T was broken up.

Delivering basic services en masse isn't one of the core functions of government. The core function of government is national and local security/justice.

Ah yes, that horrible "doing something good for other people" thing, combined with the "creating a sense of belonging to a group" stuff. Horrible concepts, horrible.

You have 100Mbps for $41? Where is that?

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