←
→

Friday, December 9, 2005

The California paradox

Right now, i'm in the famous Silicon Valley. The cradle of the internet. I'm having lots of meetings with legendary venture capital firms, with WiFi access point makers and with the giants of the internet. In each one of these meetings, i try out the internet connections that people use here and i come to the mind-boggling conclusion that internet connections here are REALLY BAD. Seriously, people here surf at speeds that we were used to in Spain back in 2000. It's common knowledge that Spanish highways are in better shape than in the US but i am astonished to see that the people who design the most advanced software, websites and hardware, surf at internet speeds hardly faster than a dial-up modem. I inquired why internet was so slow and I always got the same answer: that it's due to the fixed line operator monopoly in the US where you have 2 or 3 operators per city and are all colluding. Interestingly, in Europe, there is a lot of competition among fixed line operators and very little with mobile operators. Here, it's the contrary, mobiles are much cheaper but fixed phone lines have smaller bandiwths and are very expensive. Clearly, this is not Sweden where Labs2 amazed me with their 1 Gig bandwidth for only 89 euros. Every time i enter one of these meetings here in Silicon Valley, i don't know what will be worse, the coffee or the internet connection.

 

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL to this entry:
http://web.fon.com/backend_blogs/mt-tb.cgi/58


Comments | Write your comment

Intresting is the point that you show.
I feel the same when I visit NYC, I can't believe how on the subway there is not wireless services?

I will be travelling to LA the next 23, I would like yo visit some interesting places for entreprenuers... could you advise some points?

Thanks

# 1 | Sent by: mutual – Sunday, December 11, 2005 (02:35)

I would bet for the coffe (as worse). The other issue can be improved ,-)

# 2 | Sent by: tamaran – Monday, December 12, 2005 (10:59)

Not true. I have Verizon FIOS 15 mbs download and 2 mbs upload for under $50. I think it's plenty fast enough. I also have FIOS TV and Vonage on the same line. I can get a faster connection if I desired, 30 mbs down and 5 mbs up.

# 3 | Sent by: Craig – Wednesday, February 8, 2006 (19:50)

prevacid prevacid

# 4 | Sent by: prevacid – Monday, November 20, 2006 (17:49)


Write your comment




Remember Me?:


Verification:



Recent posts