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Comment by LouisSayers | Hacker News Reader

As a Kiwi expat, prices for internet, and mobile services are amazingly cheaper here in the UK than back in NZ.

There's much more competition here, I'm amazed that I can get unlimited internet on my phone for £12 per month (giffgaff).

Back in NZ my monthly home internet cost the equivalent of £25 with no phoneline (cable - which is rare in NZ), and was capped at 10GB per month. Compared to other services, this was really cheap!

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Situation here in India is comparatively good. I use a 100 Gb broadband plan(a decent 50 MBps) for as low as $25. Also above 100 Gb it's unlimited for a lower speed(6 MBps, Unlimited!). Piracy is a lot easier here since services like Netflix are not available and internet is super cheap and fast.

Same in Romania the 1Gbps[1] internet for about £12 and very few legit services like Netflix, Spotify and such.

So guess what's going to happen when you have such an amazing connection.

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

Also mention that it is an unlimited data plan, with no caps or additional costs. Yes, that is a 1Gbps connection.

What provider are you using?

Have been trying to avoid piracy for the past few years. Started by buying and then renting dvds from a local dvd rental library. Currently renting movies from youtube seems like an option. Tried Bigflix, a netflix like service but a subscription service doesn't work with a very outdated collection. Youtube seems to get movies after they are approved by cbfc (the hollywood ones,I can see free nigerian movies without a cbfc rating. cbfc is India's movie certification body). This limits the content that is available. No TV content is available. So even with all the Internet bandwidth and some money, I still cannot watch shows which someone in the US can. Things are improving. Many US/UK based series get same week broadcast on TV. But more can be done for the subscription or rental market.

Wonder what causes it? Are they pushing technical costs onto the consumers? Or do they just see a captivate market and most providers are owned outside the country?

If you take a look at this map: http://imgur.com/xLxUs it looks like to buy a connection into/out of NZ there aren't many options - and the cables all look very long, i.e. very expensive.

And a government who supports the main telecom and lines company. There has even been talk of putting some cash their way to compensate for the money they would lose (the dividend they have been paying to date has been good too - but that couldn't be cut of course). This crap from our PM. After screwing us for decades, the commerce commission makes a decision that required a backbone and the PM sides with the corporation rather than the taxpayer. http://i.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/9169753/Chorus-must...

Here's a better link http://www.submarinecablemap.com/

Limited bandwidth coming in, limited bandwidth for the end user.

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