The Expensive World of Internet: A Lack of Choice and Poor Infrastructure

Chattanooga Tennessee is one town that had gigabit internet for $300 a month, it's really expensive but it was also one of the first places to get gigabit. But when Google Fiber came to town started charging $70 mysteriously and by coincidence I guess Chattanooga lowered the price of gigabit internet to $70 so I wonder why that was the reason why cable companies often don't even offer gigabit internet is usually because of the last mile you see the infrastructure in the backbone of the internet might be able to handle plenty of speed but the last mile of cabling is often really poor infrastructure with copper cables that can't handle any type of high-speed. Cable companies often have zero incentive to upgrade this poor infrastructure in The Last Mile and if they do they usually charge enormous prices for it.

In the US, there's pretty much an oligarchy of internet service providers - you got Comcast AT&T and Time Warner one in three Americans have access to only one internet service provider, one choice which is zero Choice. And then if you're lucky you might have two like me. Looking further in how much internet should cost well, you can't just look at the USA there's places with terrible internet connections like Australia it's notorious one article from less than two years ago says that the average at that time was just 4.7 megabits per second in Australia that is absolutely ridiculously low.

But what causes this huge variety of prices around the world I think there are two main reasons but you guys can let me know if there are others that you think. The first one is low competition, pretty obvious a cable company is going to charge as much as they can get away with and if they are the only choice in town well they can charge as much as they want. The fact that a cable company can slash a gigabit price from $300 a month to $70 a month practically overnight means that you probably shouldn't be charging $300 a month.

The second reason is poor infrastructure, if you have a crappy Last Mile and you want to get higher speed you're going to have to pay for it especially if the cable company wants to go and invest in an upgraded infrastructure in The Last Mile. That not savings is going to be passed on to you but the only way for that price to be minimized is if there's competition to keep all the companies in check and if the cable company decides to not upgrade the infrastructure and you're a consumer who wants a higher speed well you're going to take up more resources than a normal person on that crappy line so you're going to have to pay up to be able to get your higher speed.

When there's not as much to go around on the crappy line but I think the poor infrastructure is really a symptom of the low competition anyway. So let's consider the question what should internet cost well, it's really an impossible question it's like saying what should gas cost it depends entirely on the location the infrastructure around it and other factors.

However, I think we can all agree that with internet becoming more and more important in everyday life it should cost way less than it does right now. Personally, I think there should be a maximum price for minimum speed on internet prices in the USA utility companies like electricity and water typically have hard regulations for maximum pricing because they're the only in town they're monopolies but they have regulations to control that. But it's the same monopolies with the internet but there's no restrictions cuz they argue that internet is some sort of special service.

It's not a utility even though that's really becoming less and less true every day, internet is starting to become a necessity I think for major cities it's totally reasonable to demand gigabit internet for around $50 a month. I'm just basing it arbitrarily on Google fiber's price of $70 a month so I don't have any cost analysis to back it up but you look at other countries like South Korea they have such fast internet for such low prices and yet our cable companies are gouging us cuz they're the only game in town and they have no reason to innovate.

So, I want to hear what you guys think in the comments section. Are you getting a great deal maybe you're getting gouged let us know where you are you know your speed that kind of thing. And if you like this video be sure to give it a thumbs up or even a thumbs down. If you want to check out some other videos on the right hand side, you can either click them or look in the description for the same link. Like if you're on a phone.

If you want to subscribe I make a variety of videos three times a week so I think it should be worth it I'm going to look forward to hearing from you guys either on Twitter or on the comment section. So, I thank you for watching I will see you next time have a good one

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey guys this is Theo joot Tech I thought I would talk about internet prices because it seems to be a Hot Topic as always specifically internet prices and what they should be and maybe why they're so expensive internet prices vary so widly across the world I mean you got South Korea you can get gigabit internet for $30 the USA is notoriously expensive and slow around me I can get maybe 75 megabit for $70 which isn't actually terrible but maybe I'm just conditioned to think that but in some select cities you can get Google Fiber for $70 a month with gigabit internet and then of course some companies are starting to match that once they roll in but it's not like companies have to charge that much Chattanooga Tennessee is one town that had gigabit internet for $300 a month it's really expensive but it was also one of the first places to get gigabit but then when Google Fiber came to town started charging $70 mysteriously and by coincidence I guess Chattanooga lowered the price of gigabit internet to $70 so I wonder why that was the reason why cable companies often don't even offer gigabit internet is usually because of the last mile you see the infrastructure in the backbone of the internet might be able to handle plenty of speed but the last mile of cabling is often really poor infrastructure with copper cables that can't handle any type of highp speed cable companies often have zero incentive to upgrade this poor infrastructure in The Last Mile and if they do they usually charge enormous prices for it in the US there's pretty much an oligarchy of internet service providers you got Comcast AT&T and Time Warner one in three Americans have access to only one internet service provider one choice which is zero Choice and then if you're lucky you might have two like me so looking further in how much internet should cost well you can't just look at the USA there's places with terrible internet connections like Australia it's notorious one article from less than two years ago says that the average at that time was just 4.7 megabits per second in Australia that is absolutely ridiculously low but what causes this huge variety of prices around the world I think there are two main reasons but you guys can let me know if there are others that you think the first one is low competition pretty obvious a cable company is going to charge as much as they can get away with and if they are the only choice in town well they can charge as much as they want the fact that a cable company can slash a gigabit price from $300 a month to $70 a month practically overnight means that you probably shouldn't be charging $300 a month the second reason is poor infrastructure if you have a crappy Last Mile and you want to get higher speed you're going to have to pay for it especially if the cable company wants to go and invest in an upgraded infrastructure in The Last Mile that not savings is going to be passed on to you but the only way for that price to be minimized is if there's competition to keep all the companies in check and if the cable company decides to not upgrade the infrastructure and you're a consumer who wants a higher speed well you're going to take up more resources than a normal person on that crappy line so you're going to have to pay up to be able to get your higher speed when there's not as much to go around on the crappy line but I think the poor infrastructure is really a symptom of the low competition anyway so let's consider the question what should internet cost well it's really an impossible question it's like saying what should gas cost it depends entirely on the location the infrastructure around it and other factors however I think we can all agree that with internet becoming more and more important in everyday life it should cost way less than it does right now I personally think there should be a maximum price for minimum speed on internet prices in the USA utility companies like electricity and water typically have hard regulations for maximum pricing because they're the only in town they're monopolies but they have regulations to control that but it's the same monopolies with the internet but there's no restrictions cuz they argue that internet is some sort of special service it's not a utility even though that's really becoming less and less true every day internet is starting to become a necessity I think for major cities it's totally reasonable to demand gigabit internet for around $50 a month I'm just basing it arbitrarily on Google fiber's price of $70 a month so I don't have any cost analysis to back it up but you look at other countries like South Korea they have such fast internet for such low prices and yet our cable companies are gouging us cuz they're the only game in town and they have no reason to innovate so I want to hear what you guys think in the comments section are you getting a great deal maybe you're getting gouged let us know where you are you know your speed that kind of thing and if you like this video be sure to give it a thumbs up or even a thumbs down if you want to check out some other videos on the right hand side you can either click them or look in the description for the same link like if you're on a phone and if you want to subscribe I make a variety of videos three times a week so I think it should be worth it I'm going to look forward to hearing from you guys either on Twitter or on the comment section so I thank you for watching I will see you next time have a good onehey guys this is Theo joot Tech I thought I would talk about internet prices because it seems to be a Hot Topic as always specifically internet prices and what they should be and maybe why they're so expensive internet prices vary so widly across the world I mean you got South Korea you can get gigabit internet for $30 the USA is notoriously expensive and slow around me I can get maybe 75 megabit for $70 which isn't actually terrible but maybe I'm just conditioned to think that but in some select cities you can get Google Fiber for $70 a month with gigabit internet and then of course some companies are starting to match that once they roll in but it's not like companies have to charge that much Chattanooga Tennessee is one town that had gigabit internet for $300 a month it's really expensive but it was also one of the first places to get gigabit but then when Google Fiber came to town started charging $70 mysteriously and by coincidence I guess Chattanooga lowered the price of gigabit internet to $70 so I wonder why that was the reason why cable companies often don't even offer gigabit internet is usually because of the last mile you see the infrastructure in the backbone of the internet might be able to handle plenty of speed but the last mile of cabling is often really poor infrastructure with copper cables that can't handle any type of highp speed cable companies often have zero incentive to upgrade this poor infrastructure in The Last Mile and if they do they usually charge enormous prices for it in the US there's pretty much an oligarchy of internet service providers you got Comcast AT&T and Time Warner one in three Americans have access to only one internet service provider one choice which is zero Choice and then if you're lucky you might have two like me so looking further in how much internet should cost well you can't just look at the USA there's places with terrible internet connections like Australia it's notorious one article from less than two years ago says that the average at that time was just 4.7 megabits per second in Australia that is absolutely ridiculously low but what causes this huge variety of prices around the world I think there are two main reasons but you guys can let me know if there are others that you think the first one is low competition pretty obvious a cable company is going to charge as much as they can get away with and if they are the only choice in town well they can charge as much as they want the fact that a cable company can slash a gigabit price from $300 a month to $70 a month practically overnight means that you probably shouldn't be charging $300 a month the second reason is poor infrastructure if you have a crappy Last Mile and you want to get higher speed you're going to have to pay for it especially if the cable company wants to go and invest in an upgraded infrastructure in The Last Mile that not savings is going to be passed on to you but the only way for that price to be minimized is if there's competition to keep all the companies in check and if the cable company decides to not upgrade the infrastructure and you're a consumer who wants a higher speed well you're going to take up more resources than a normal person on that crappy line so you're going to have to pay up to be able to get your higher speed when there's not as much to go around on the crappy line but I think the poor infrastructure is really a symptom of the low competition anyway so let's consider the question what should internet cost well it's really an impossible question it's like saying what should gas cost it depends entirely on the location the infrastructure around it and other factors however I think we can all agree that with internet becoming more and more important in everyday life it should cost way less than it does right now I personally think there should be a maximum price for minimum speed on internet prices in the USA utility companies like electricity and water typically have hard regulations for maximum pricing because they're the only in town they're monopolies but they have regulations to control that but it's the same monopolies with the internet but there's no restrictions cuz they argue that internet is some sort of special service it's not a utility even though that's really becoming less and less true every day internet is starting to become a necessity I think for major cities it's totally reasonable to demand gigabit internet for around $50 a month I'm just basing it arbitrarily on Google fiber's price of $70 a month so I don't have any cost analysis to back it up but you look at other countries like South Korea they have such fast internet for such low prices and yet our cable companies are gouging us cuz they're the only game in town and they have no reason to innovate so I want to hear what you guys think in the comments section are you getting a great deal maybe you're getting gouged let us know where you are you know your speed that kind of thing and if you like this video be sure to give it a thumbs up or even a thumbs down if you want to check out some other videos on the right hand side you can either click them or look in the description for the same link like if you're on a phone and if you want to subscribe I make a variety of videos three times a week so I think it should be worth it I'm going to look forward to hearing from you guys either on Twitter or on the comment section so I thank you for watching I will see you next time have a good one\n"