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Comment by Fuxy | Hacker News Reader

US you're ISP's suck please wake up and do something about it!

Now I'm not in a lot better position ISP's in London are not that much of an improvement.

However if i say Romania what pops into your mind? I my case internet speeds starting from 50Mb/s in every major city at a price equivalent to £6/month.

http://www.rcs-rds.ro/internet-digi-net/fiberlink?t=internet...

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Do what exactly? Most areas in the US are served either by one provider that does whatever the hell it wants or multiple providers that offer the same awful service at the same terrible prices (ish). We can't vote with our money and we can't vote with our votes since our politicians (1) are clueless about all things technology (2) get the little knowledge they have from lobbyists and (3) won't do anything about internet problems unless they hear about it from a lot of voters, most of whom are also clueless about all things technology.

I assume Romanians are somewhat (equally) clueless about technology on average. What's the difference, then? What are they doing right?

Actually worse. Most people still have a hard time just doing basic things on a laptop.

The difference is teenagers are teaching their parents how to use laptops or other new electronics so they are improving slowly.

Is £6/month a lot in Romania? Does it buy less than the $70 I spend for 50mbs?

Prices for most things in Romania are the same as in London but the income is a lot less that's what puts most Romanians in a nasty situation.

Imagine you living on (average us income)/6 while everything else around you has the same price it has now. That will give you a good idea.

Most people have a monthly income of about £250 if you were to convert it. Now that should cover all the bills and food, most Romanians own their houses so they don't have to pay rent which is good but that is still a bad situation regardless.

Well you're on a good track complain politicians don't care as much about the masses as they do about the noisy few on the news.

And sitting back complaining there's no competition won't get things done so build a company that actually strives to give customers a better service instead of milking them for every cent they can.

I'm not saying it's easy but if everybody is just complaining it will never get done.

For reference, Romania's area is a little smaller than Michigan (the 11th largest US state). And about the same population as the state of New York.

So, it's not like it's a tiny country. We should be able to do that pricing in U.S.

Yes and the only major difference i see compare to London is that the last mile is done with Cat5 instead of phone line.

Not that much of a feat.

You also forgot to factor in terrain it is quite a mountainous country.

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