PCWorld.com via Yahoo News! is running a little story talking about the various broadband options available in other countries. The survey method is far from exhaustive or scientific. PC World has 60 some affiliates in many different countries. Editors from its various international rags wrote in describing broadband connectivity and pricing.

Given the international make up of MobyGames, what is your connection? How much does it cost? What's available? Are you satisfied with your options?

Commenting on my own post?!?!

ADSL 3mb/down 768k/up $79/mo 2 static IPs

Pretty good for what I need. Though I find myself wishing I had faster sometimes.

I have no idea how to get all that information so I'll just say this:

Comcast Cable: $35/mo Parents pay for it

Very fast. I like it. Nuff said.

Comcast cable. $45.95/mo. (split price with my brother) The 2 online tests give these speeds:

Speed Meter Your bandwidth was clocked at 5.66 Mbps

Broadband Report.com dslreports.com speed test result on 2006-09-02 13:46:24 EST: 6139 / 361 Your download speed : 6139 kbps or 767.4 KB/sec. That is 8.7% better than an average user on comcast.net

Your upload speed : 361 kbps or 45.1 KB/sec. That is 22.6% worse than an average user on comcast.net

ADSL 256k down, 128k/up circa $37/mo (R$ 82,00).

If flipkin wants his faster, man, I'd hate mine! But i really think it is ok, but some more up band would help when uploading screenshots and covers.

You can try testing your speed with this URL

http://www.2wire.com/?p=154

I got

Speed Meter

Your bandwidth was clocked at
2.19 Mbps

I got

Your bandwidth was clocked at 3.84 Mbps

If you want something more detailed go here...

http://www.dslreports.com/stest

I'd suggest poking around the site more for other stuff

Well, I'm at work now, so I'll have to test it again there. But here I got

Your bandwidth was clocked at 155.50 Kbps

But AFAIK, those speed meters aren't accurate, as their measurements vary depending on the link's physical distance from the meter's server.

Edit: the same test at home - Your bandwidth was clocked at 223.60 Kbps

Since you're bringing up the speed testing sites let me just say that with a lot of those web based tools, there are a whole lot of variables between your connection and that of the website. Basically ISP A might connect great to most of the web but might get a slow connection to Speedtest B. Whereas ISP is based in Outer Estonia and can't get good speeds to amazon, but miraciously gets a good Speedtest B.

That's an oversimplification, but basically: The only true speedtest that you can do is between your connection at your computer (home, work) and the ISPs server. That's your actual speed to your service provider with no interruptions, your maximum possible. When connecting to other servers on the Internet abroad (the real world results), it's important to get an average from different websites/speedtests (don't rely on just 1), try it at non-peak times, check net congestion etc.

Even if you have the zappiest connection in the universe, you might find times when Mobygames is sluggish or the speedtest website is overloaded or an important connection holding the Internet together just isn't working. That will of course affect your results.

Cable: 10 Mbps down / 192 Kbps up - €41.95 / mo. - paid for by a company that forgot they ever started paying it for me.

I share an additional ADSL connection, though, because I'm limited to 20GB data usage per month, and that's a joke.

I tried the other site and it gave me

4153 / 347

Your download speed : 4153 kbps or 519.1 KB/sec. That is 29% worse than an average user on comcast.net

Your upload speed : 347 kbps or 43.4 KB/sec. That is 10.5% worse than an average user on comcast.net

What's the point in having a great internet speed if you can only download 20 GB a month?? It's like a contradiction!

Here in Mexico I have 1Mb/256Kb and I pay like U$50 but our ISP doubles the speed each year or so for free, and they have just announced it will be upgraded to 2Mb in a matter of days!!.

Belgium is a small country (abound 11 million people, 30,000 square kilometres), so when high-speed connections were introduced, the entire territory was covered quite quickly. There were no limitations in the beginning, but those were introduced as the number of subscribers grew. The main problem is the lack of competition. The two largest providers (one cable, one over telephone lines) have a silent agreement for certain matters. No other company can introduce another cable network, and the second provider owns all telephone lines, and only leases them for a hefty price to other providers, so they are even getting a cut from the competition. They're all about speed, and digital television, but never mention data usage. I'm lucky to have 20 GB, the other company offers only 10 GB / mo. for a basic subscription.

I have ADSL, don't know how fast it is, I don't understand those technical issues very well... 100 MB, something like this... is it fast? :-))

The connection costs us (my girlfriend has made the contract with China Telecom) about 1200 yuan per year (~150$).

100 MB, something like this... is it fast? :-))


Extremely and insanely fast!! (Might want to lower case that b there...possibly add a decimal point. makes a big difference...)

Looks like I'm somewhere around 2.8Mbps with DSL. Tends to be more than adequate for me...

Let's wait for the Swedes to post their specs - Sweden is broadband heaven.

2Mb ADSL, but then I live a bit outside town, so it's okay, i guess.

That's true.

We can get as fast as 10MB/10MB per seconds (vDSL) for 56€ a month here in Finland. I'm personally on a 1MB/1MB connection (aDSL) which is only 25€ a month.

Depending on where you live, you might also get a 100MB/100MB, but I don't know how expensive it is.

It's weird that people state that Finland is way left behind with it's networking system, I don't see why.

I have 8 Mb down and 1 Mb upstream. Apparently, I live far from the exchange even though I live in downtown Stockholm. I pay a bit extra for the luxury of having my own IP.

I subcribed to 512Kb/s downstrean and 256Kb/s upstream connetion for USD17.40(RM66) per month with unlimited usage. However the speed advertised and the speed I'm receiving is totally different. In fact, what my ISP offers is "at best effort only". Meaning they are capable of giving 70% of the advertised speed once in a blue moon. However the normal speed they issue is about 40% or at worse 0.5 times faster than 56K. In fact, their support line is so bad that it makes Ubisoft tech support and EA Games support line like God sent. They come up from a range of excuses like "Submarine line has been damaged", "Server problems", "your PC sucks", "change your router", "you're not using a certified modem" blah blah blah. Recently about 3 weeks ago, the connection was so bad that even the Minister of Energy and Water himself couldn't surf the net. He has voiced his complains to the press demanding that ISP stop doing this "At best effort only" crap and give a permanant 2Mbp/s connetion or have their license revoked. Problem is it won't happen in a long while if there's only one major ISP. I coul go on and on about this problem but I'm sure you get the picture by now. The ISP in question is called TMNet and their service is called Stremyx which ironically handles streaming videos poorly.

The DSL Reports site gave me this result: dslreports.com speed test result on 2006-08-27 01:36:29 EST: 416 / 102 Your download speed : 416 kbps or 52.1 KB/sec. Your upload speed : 102 kbps or 12.8 KB/sec.

I have DSL installed. I'm supposed to have 512kbps speed at a cost of $349 Mexican Pesos (approximately $30 USD) per month. My provider is supposedly doubling the speed sometime in the near future at the same price... but knowing them, they'll only do it for new customers. The rest of us will be hosed as usual. *shrugs*

Nominal values: 4.8 Mb / 320 Kb. Since I live in Italy - the Holy Land of Scams & Fake Promises - divide those numbers by a high factor of your choice to get closer to reality.

EDIT: the cost is 25 € or so.

2Mb down/512Mb up 45€ per month. 8/1 Full rate would cost nine euros more, but this is plenty enough for me.

U.K

Tiscali Broadband 1Mb Unlimited*

1Mb Down / 256Kb Up.

No Monthly Download Limits

£14.99 Per Month plus a free gift each month

* Fair Usage Policy (No heavy downloading between 18.00 - 23.00)

I have 8mbit down/768kbit up, which translates to a maximum speed of about 1MB/s download and 96kB/s upload... with a more accurate maximum speed (taking into account distances and lag and other factors) of 800kB/s down and 76.8kB/s up.

To get your estimated speeds, you do this:

Divide your mbit/s or kbit/s speed by 8 to see your absolute maximum speed assuming no slowdowns from anything at all (you'll rarely see this speed).

Divide your mbit/s or kbit/s speed by 10 to see your normal maximum speed (taking into account normal slowdown factors (you'll see this speed often when downloading or uploading from/to locations that can handle that speed.

Anyhow, my connection is from Comcast and is their higher speed one ($10 more per month to go from 6mbit/256kbit to 8mbit/768kbit, though I have a special offer right now for 3 months without the additional cost). My cost during this special offer is $45.95/month and the normal cost is $55.95/month. Of course, I also have cable television, so I get a discount from that. Considering the discount is off both of the services combined, I can't really give an exact cost per month for just the internet.

EDIT: And, for those who use those speed tests, keep in mind that when I test the different speed tests, I can get speeds ranging from under 1mbit/s to over 24mbit/s... I *wish* I had the latter!!! :D So, don't go by those... just see what your provider tells you and use the calculation(s) I mentioned to see your actual speeds.