Developing Nations Crippled By Broadband Costs 239
eldavojohn writes "If you live in the EU, you probably enjoy low broadband costs. If you live in Finland, it's even a legal right. If you live in the US, you probably pay a moderate cost. But if you live in the developing world, a UNCTAD report paints your picture pretty grim. Ridiculously high bandwidth costs are inhibiting developing nations from enjoying productive use of the internet — like online banking and market tools."
'cause what the developing world desperately needs (Score:4, Interesting)
Chiming in from Finland (Score:1, Interesting)
The broadband is everywhere, yes, but to actually get any features you need you're going to have to pay.
Want a static IPv4 ip? No problem, it's available for business subscriptions that cost you twice or three times as much. Want an IPv6 subnet? Sure.. but it'll cost you. How about upload bandwidth that doesn't suck? Go ahead, but it'll double the price and you'll have to use a different technique.
I have two static internet connections (not counting 3G) at home for that reason: ADSL2+ (24M/3M) with a small IPv4 subnet and a /64 IPv6 for every day stuff, and a VDSL2 (100/64M) for hosting anything bigger than a two megabyte image *with a dynamic ip*. If you wanted to have a fat pipe with any of the features users actually need you have to pay hundreds of euros for a decent symmetric SHDSL connection.
For anyone curious the ADSL2+ line costs me 80EUR a month from a smaller enthusiast ISP and the VDSL2 60 eur/month from a big known ISP. I wish they'd offer something usable at lower price :-(
Also I know no ISP that offers fiber to home (they say "fiber" but it means fiber to your block and then DSL/cable from there to you), unless you pay really big.
Re:Development crippled by what? (Score:4, Interesting)
Broadband access, of course. I'd imagine that narrowly edged out security, stability, access to medical care, and clean drinking water.
Strangely enough, Somalia is touted [wikipedia.org] to have one of the most advanced telecommunications industry in Africa.
Apparently when there is no corrupt government (or any government worth mentioning) or regulatory body (FCC) then people just put up their own cell phone towers and wireless networks with little regard to the previous system.
Of course during the anarchy most of the copper why was torn down and sold as scrap by looters so wireless was the only alternative and many of the warlords and pirates were keen on having cell phone access to speak with people internationally so they had some high bankroll early adopters.
That said... Between the angry warlords and Islamic militias... I wouldn't move there for the wireless and broad band systems.
Don't have banking? News to me. (Score:4, Interesting)
I write software for banks for a living. Web, mobile, voice, atm, teller, whatever. As far as my industry has indicated, these developing nations rely on cell phones for the majority of their banking, and anyone with enough money to care about banking will likely use a cell phone for that purpose - at least for common daily usage. There are people out there who have to rely on a hand-crank generator or pay a vendor to charge their phone - they have no access to electricity, but you'll note, they STILL have a cell phone.
Even in developing nations, cell phones are incredibly pervasive.
In Thailand (Score:3, Interesting)
the phone and stringing wire and cable costs more because of the climate, the ground tends to flood a lot and won't hold the poles, and the economy is so bad that the technology costs a lot.
My Thai in-laws had ISDN 128K BPS speed but paid a lot for it, and only had the USB interface to it. I wondered why they didn't have DSL or Cable modems, but it seems ISDN is cheaper and uses the ordinary phone lines.
Most Thai people have cell phones because the land near them won't take on ordinary phone lines and cell phones are cheaper than the land based phone. But something like an iPhone or Blackberry costs them like $900USD or almost 30,000 Thai Bhat. Not because they are being price gouged, but because the economy is so bad that technology costs more there. The cost of computers, game consoles, cell phones, DVD players, TV sets, etc are all high because of that. But food and clothes are cheap because they are not technology based and produced by native farms and companies. The technology made by native companies is usually cheaper than technology from foreign companies, but the iPhone, Blackberry, etc are all foreign made.
Re:In Thailand (Score:3, Interesting)
What? no. I pay 50% MORE for locally produced foods. Due to the completely out of whack ideals, local food is considered gourmet, and is therefore more expensive. Also the cost of labor is something like 5x as high, making it more expensive to produce than food harvested by what is essentially indentured servitude slaves in 3rd world countries.