Unfortunately, I can't test those speeds since my in-laws connect to the internet via ISDN. And as they only use it to email, they really don't need a faster connection I suppose. And I agree that advertised speeds are only that. Insight advertises 10M, but I never get up past 6. And the fact that I am in Saitama, which is next to Tokyo, makes a big difference in rolling out bigger pipes to the home (especially when you see how close together all their infrastructure is). But I still find it amazing that the advertised speed for a dsl connection is 5 times faster than the advertised speed in Bloomington. When I see that other countries are getting much, much faster connections than I am, I can't help but wonder why all of my choices don't even come close. I mean, how many places in the U.S offer fiber connections at 100M? I think Verizon is rolling out a little bit of fiber in some places, but I don't think it's that fast. I suppose it really just boils down to wanting what my neighbors have.
Disclaimer: I just left work as an admin at an ISP...
There are two problems with people comparing US "broadband" with other countries. First is that the cost of the ISP's uplink is extremely expensive. A DS3 will get you about 45Mbits/s up and down if all the channels are used for data. If you want 10Mbits/s concurrent then the cost of the uplink needs to drop, which isn't going to happen. That is where over subscribing comes in.
Second is the size and terrian of the US. You can't compare France to the US, the physical size just isn't the same and people live much closer together so costs are recouped much faster. People south of Bedford are lesslikely to get fiber because of the roll out cost. It may be feasible to get 384/128 DSL but to expect 10Mbps/s is unreasonable at this point in time.
Matt Standish
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