BOINK!
THIS JUST IN!! Got a kind of SPAM email (which I NEVER read) but this one was intriguing.
It was from and about a new (?) site
http://www.TelefonicaInEnglish.com/ so I checked out their website. Decent site all about getting phone lines installed, internet connections, etcetera and ALL IN ENGLISH.
I was especially interested in internet offerings (broadband, that is) so I checked out their page @
http://www.telefonicainenglish.com/adsl.htm which gives the ADSL connection speeds and fees. Wow. It's all SO shocking SLOW and all SO shockingly expensive for what you get.
So I went to my the website of my current CABLE internet provider, RoadRunner, here in the USA and compared their services and prices. Wow. What a difference. Their page @
http://www.rr.com/rdrun/ states the following:
Monthly Service
The price of the Road Runner Online Service may vary from market to market. On average, a monthly subscription is $44.95 per month and includes a cable modem. This fee is in addition to the regular monthly cable subscription. The monthly fee includes ALWAYS ON access to the online service and the Internet.
... our standard service has increased from 3.0 Mbps to 5.0 Mbps.
Then I went back to the TelefonicaInEnglish.com site and they offer the following:
BASIC
- 512 Kbps connection
- 10 x faster than dial-up*
- Unlimited access 24/7
No monthly usage
- SPECIAL OFFER
Free modem
39,07€ a month
CLASS
- 1mb connection
- 20 x faster than dial-up
- Unlimited access 24/7
No monthly usage
- Wireless Router
74,98€ a month
ADVANCED
- 2mb connection
- 40 x faster than dial-up
- Unlimited access 24/7
No monthly usage
- Wireless Router
120,00€ a month
I won't go any further than this although there is a faster, more expensive additional option.
Summary: The ADVANCED 2mb connection in Spain costs you about $160 USD per month when a 5mb cable connection in the USA costs about $50 per month.
What a sorry state of affairs.
WIRE THAT CITY WITH CABLE/FIBER OPTIC WIRE ALREADY! But why bother doing that when they can charge (and apparently GET) people those high prices and low connection speeds. Ugh!
Saludos, MadridMan