Comment by mikehc | Hacker News Reader

Comment by mikehc | Hacker News Reader

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I had a similar situation in Mexico where no provider gave me the bandwith I need it. The biggest provider (Telmex( refused to sign me up for a better plan because their infraestructure near my home wouldn't support it, at least they were honest.

I called my local cable company and contracted their 50 mbps plan. Had a lot of issues with the installation and never really received the complete service. They didn't had enough bandwith in the zone so very few times I received my contracted bandwith.

At the end I contacted a Telcom (EnlaceTPE) which specialize in providing fiber internet to companies. They did the entire fiber instalation to my home. I only had to commit to 3 years paying around 70 usd with a 200 mbps service. From the first call to installation took around 3 months, best decision made so far.

Curious, what's wages (low and medium) in USD for someone in your area? As an American reading anecdotes, I like to look at it in terms of cost relative to income instead of cost in isolation. Helps me get an idea of where the cost would start here and how much value that company delivers.

I really have no idea. I get paid very well but that is not representative of the common wages around here.

The service by itself is expensive, considering it's just Internet. The most common package for internet + phone, on the most popular provider, costs around 24 USD monthly. If you want cable add another 20 bucks.

According to some websites the median wages in Mexico per home at 2013 was around 740 USD monthly.

Interesting. I decided to do a comparison using the percentage of monthly income for the Internet. I decided to use $30,000 a year per household to represent middle end of working class. I figure it's a fair class to use and pretty large. I used price of good Internet (50Mbps) in my area. So, here's the costs:

USA: 2.8% of household income; Mexico: 3.2% with your number

So, they're quite similar. For that, I get 50Mbps down and a fraction up for $70. You get 200Mbps down and how much up? Either way, you're getting a good deal as a percentage of income. If you're better than $740/mo, you're getting a really good deal. I'm envious. :)

That's a great outcome, props on making it happen.

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