Olympic Media Village – Most Expensive Internet In the World? 389
An anonymous reader writes "Working for the Olympics as an IT contractor, I recently moved to the Media Village (where all of the reporters live) and was surprised the there was no free internet. BOCOG (Beijing Organizing Committee of the 2008 Olympic Games) is charging a ridiculous amount of money for ADSL service: for 512/512 it costs 7712.5 RMB (1131.20 USD); for 1M/512 it costs 9156.25 (1342.95 USD); for 2M/512 it costs a whopping 11,700 RMB (1716.05 USD). That is for only one month! For extra features like a fixed IP? That costs an additional 450 RMB (66 USD). I just can't believe that not only do I have to deal with the Great Firewall of China, but also pay through the nose to use it!"
As an IT contractor ... (Score:5, Insightful)
how comes your company doesn't pay for it?
Capitalist China? (Score:2, Insightful)
Keeps the "illegal" bloggers at bay... (Score:5, Insightful)
There is no free lunch (Score:5, Insightful)
I remember getting insulted at a hotel because they wanted to charge me $10 a day for internet access. I certainly sympathize...
...However, one must also understand the economics of the situation. For our cable modems and DSL lines, the long-term subscriptions allow the initial investment to be recaptured over time. Does the same apply at the Chinese Olympics?
Of course it costs. (Score:5, Insightful)
deep packet inspection and analysis for all your communication is expensive.
In communist China (Score:4, Insightful)
You're a rich American, remember? I think they're putting the screws to you and pulling your leg; a coworker of mine just got back from China about 3 weeks ago and he said his hotel in Beijing had free wireless. Sneak into a hotel and give that a shot. What's the worst that could happen
Re:Capitalist China? (Score:2, Insightful)
They already are capitalist. Probably one of the most capitalist countries in existance now, since they didn't move forward into socialism and now are stuck in this very bad quasi-communist thing.
some unkind words (Score:5, Insightful)
you went to the Olympics as a contractor to make money. now you find out tool you need for the job actually costs money instead of being free, a lot of money. well, so you assumed and fucked up. Are we learning yet?
Re:Share the BW (Score:2, Insightful)
The Chinese government is very protective of the profitability of their companies. If you were to circumvent this, I'd almost expect to disappear in the middle of the night and be subjected to some harsh questioning. The stakes are a little higher when they lose thousands and thousands of what they consider to be their money when you share your neighbor's DSL. As opposed to the US, where you'd be depriving a company of $40-60 for decent DSL service.
Not worth the risk in my opinion.
Another scenario, what if they were arrested and charged with theft? That's a pretty harsh crime there, especially for something as expensive as that DSL. That reporter would be going to jail for a long, long time, and the US wouldn't bail them out.
Re:In communist China (Score:5, Insightful)
Just like buisness hotels (Score:5, Insightful)
Every single person in the media village is attached to one of the media organizations covering the Olympics. That means every penny they spend will be 100% reimbursed by the corporation that has them out there. The company's already spending millions to send the manpower and equipment over there, what's an extra $1k here or there? And of course it's only for 1 month, that's how long the Olympics are.
This is the same as all business hotels. Your run of the mill Best Western, Days Inn, etc family chains all have free Wifi internet. Minute you go to any "business class" hotel or go within a block of a convention center, you start getting charged $10/day to $10/hr. It's all reimbursed through their company so the person staying doesn't care, and a company's not going to reasonably tell employees not to pay $10 to access their e-mail and work an extra hour from the hotel when they're paying $200/night anyway.
Re:Try Dubai.. (Score:5, Insightful)
This [wikimedia.org] is Dubai. Notice anything, moron?
Re:Capitalist China? (Score:5, Insightful)
News flash: China has spent the last 15-20 years transitioning to capitalism.
Depending on how you want to look at it, they're almost as free (some would say more free) in that respect than we are in the US.
Re:Share the BW (Score:2, Insightful)
Yeah, I fully agree that that the PRC will, during what's seen as their gigantic, international debut as a modern nation, arrest and detain foreign reporters for sharing DSL. This is a most logical thing to do, and would definitely not result in any kind of enormous scandal.
Seriously, did you think about any of the shit you wrote here? After a few DSL thieves are jailed, what happens when the rest of the media send urgent reports all around the world saying "oh shit looks like China is still a horrible authoritarian hellhole"? The Chinese government would either have to: a) admit this, or b) jail more reporters. Both of these would completely fuck up their goal of using the Olympics to say "hey we're not so bad".
Re:What is wrong? It is for only some weeks. (Score:2, Insightful)
>There is plenty of time for the parent company to get their ROI.
But people are paying, no doubt competing for, the prices in the OP's message.
So why should they wait? Price the services at the level that the market bears.
Re:As an IT contractor ... (Score:3, Insightful)
>Whilst this is true, I suspect that his company will be paying for it.
Why didn't they get in early enough to be reselling it and taking a cut?
*Somebody* did, and I'll bet they are having a good laugh reading all this.
Re:Try Dubai.. (Score:1, Insightful)
It's a pretend city surrounded by a desert. Dubai's infrastructure isn't keeping up with the real estate boom. Even the influx of actual people isn't keeping up with the real estate boom: Most of Dubai is an investment game. The pay is attractive now, but why would anyone want to stay there? It's hot, everything (except for cheap oil) has to be brought in from far away and the political environment is of the well-meaning dictatorship kind. Imagine that stretch of land without petro dollars. Would you see it and say to yourself: "This is where millions of people should live", or would you leave the place like any other desert?
Re:Try Dubai.. (Score:4, Insightful)
Plenty of ways around this (Score:2, Insightful)
This is a drop in the bucket compared to the amount of money media are spending to cover the Olympics. When NBC spent $1.5 billion for their Olympic broadcast rights, and a $2k Internet connection reduces the chance that something will go wrong, how could they refuse it? They have plenty to worry about besides finding a cheaper Internet connection.
Dunno if it's censorship1 (Score:5, Insightful)
Dunno, it seems to me more like good old, capitalistic smelling when you can fleece someone. Just like, say, buying stuff on an airport might be more expensive than at the mall down the road.
Basically, those journalists don't have many other choices, since their readers and viewers expect coverage of those events. So as long as you price it just high enough so it's not worth it to find some other way, they'll pay.
Plus, it might come as a shock to some people, but some resources do cost more in other countries. I'll take a guess that China's broadband infrastructure is _probably_ in an even worse state than the USA's. So to give a few thousands of journalists 512 MB/s full time, no throttling, they have to throttle the already poor connections of a few million other people. It will cost you.
Re:Try Dubai.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Dubai has existed for centuries as a thriving port city and I don't remember there being a massive automobile industry in the 1700's. It has an excellent location for trade. But what, anyway, is the point of saying "yeah, but if it wasn't for the oil industry it wouldn't be like that..." It does have an oil industry and the people who live here are justified in using it to improve their living environment, are they not? Or perhaps you feel that they shouldn't. This is shifting, by the way. Dubai is now one of the worlds financial capitals. Not all business needs to be pulling things out of the ground and sticking them together anymore (thankfully).
Re:The great firewall (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Dunno if it's censorship1 (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh, large media companies are footing the bill, the cost of the broadband is half the cost of a dinner in the 5-star hotel they dare not tread 50 meters from.
Re:Just like buisness hotels (Score:3, Insightful)
Many companies in europe would for instance avoid paying business class tickets for shorter trips etc unless absolutely necessary.
That's true, but also rather different. If my company can charge my client for an extra hour of my time, that would pay for a day's worth of internet access even at $10/hour. Flying me out business class doesn't gain them anything, apart from my thanks - which while not worthless by any means, probably aren't worth that much for a short trip.
Re:There is no free lunch (Score:5, Insightful)
"I think the initial investment is less than one month of internet at those prices."
Exactly the GPs point. The initial investment has to be less than a month of Internet, because it will take an enormous amount of time to recoup the investment once the olympics are over. There is simply no way that the enormous infrastructure needed for the olympics are going to be anywhere near affordable for local residents any time soon.
Thus, the prices are jacked up to fully cover the initial investment plus a healthy profit.
Re:The great firewall (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Capitalist China? (Score:3, Insightful)
I bet that's how the "news media" all get their quotes. Get quotes from 100 or so people on the street/web. Broadcast/publish the ones in line with your agenda. Interview enough people and some will say what you want to say.
It's like one of those collages. The little bits are from different sources, but the resulting picture people are supposed to perceive is carefully crafted.
Re:Try Dubai.. (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't know of any popular arab female singers warbling "I'm a towelhead woman!"
Not to venture too far off the topic, but if you think the use of a pejorative by those whom the pejorative has been typically used against makes it less of a pejorative, I highly recommend you try saying the N-word to a group of urban youths espically after you hear them call each other that repeatedly.
Re:Try Dubai.. (Score:2, Insightful)
We have deserts in America too. We just don't live in them!
Never been to Southern California, have you?
(And don't get me started on Phoenix.)
Re:Try Dubai.. (Score:0, Insightful)
It's one of the contenders for where World Finance will move once Wall Street goes belly up. Wall Street makes no sense anymore, since Americans aren't savers and hence don't have capital to invest. Makes more sense foir world finance to be near the capital, especially since the US lost it's "low regulation" advantage long ago.
Of course Hong Kong seems more likely...
infrastructure costs ? (Score:3, Insightful)
the Olympic village will rarely be used after the games, and there's no long term subscriber base to fully amortize the costs of wiring the village, so they simply need to charge the right amount to re-coup the costs.
this is similar to people in the middle of the Saharan desert complaining about $10/min satellite phone service and comparing it to free VoIP
Re:Not So Expensive for Normal Folk (Score:3, Insightful)
I think the issue with the Olympic Village is that they had to invest and implement an incredible infrastructure that will only be used during the Olympics for the most part. That requires running quite a bit of fiber and fixing/installing good copper lines and so on.
I suspect that they want to cover the cost of all of it and don't expect to be able to throttle people like regular networks do when they share speeds and connections. Personally, it will mostly be used for monetary gain, it is a temporary event, and while the author of this post is in a unique situation, I don't see a problem with it on the whole.