DR Has Faster Internet than the US

SantiagoDR

The "REAL" SantiagoDR
Jan 12, 2006
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It's not 35 Mbps, it's 1 gig.

The chart is misleading.

The municipal power company, the Electric Power Board (EPB) set up "The Gig" fibre optic network in 2010 to enable a smart electricity grid, which also brought ultra high-speed Internet to Chattanooga's citizens. ..........

.... that's what I read from the story.

Brighthouse has the following speeds as of Nov, 2015

Lightning 35 Mbps (2 Mbps upload) will move to 50 Mbps (5 Mbps upload)
Lightning 75 Mbps (5 Mbps upload) will move to 100 Mbps (10 Mbps upload)
Lightning 150 Mbps (10 Mbps upload) will move to 200 Mbps (15 mbps upload)
and Lightning 300 Mbps (15 Mbps upload) will only increase its upload speed to 20 Mbps
 
Feb 7, 2007
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It's not uncommon to have 100 mbps as "almost basic" Internet in Europe, at least in my parts of it... (Slovakia). 250 and 500 mbps is the "upper norm" and 1 gbit connections are now also available with many operators. 2015 is the year that most of them plan to upgrade plans and networks to offer 1 gbit. I had to laugh couple of weeks ago when I visited back home, I was reviewing some plans online, and 50/5 mbps was marked as "special discount plan for retirees and full-time students facing financial hardship". And yes, it was that cheap (like 6-7 euro per month or so, all taxes included).

The problem with the DR is the Duopoly Orange/Claro (Orange = Orange + Tricom), and the lack of / expensive upstream bandwidth to USA. It's still cheaper to lay huge optical networks under the ground (Europe, Continental USA) than to lay a submarine cable (Caribbean). On the other note, (the last mile) FTTH / GPON networks are much faster deployed in DR than in the USA or Europe, because there is no need to put the networks underground, Claro / Tricom just use power poles to throw their wires into the neighborhoods.

A friend owns a cable company in Santo Domingo, they are now moving to everything-GPON for new installations, because the one-fibre fiber cable used to connect outside outside "hub" to residences is 1/3 of price of the standard coaxial cable used to connect TAPs on the poles to residences ;)

The problem, however, will still remain the uplink bandwidth ...
 
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SKY

Gold
Apr 11, 2004
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I guess I am wrong with the speeds. But I tell you this, I go to the US frequently and use internet in a friend's house or their office and I have yet to see a connection that is even close in DL speed to the one I have here.
 

waytogo

Moderator - North Coast Forum
Apr 3, 2009
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Santiago DR
I wish I could get some of that speed here in the Campo..........
Global is the only service available here and their top speed, 300kbps for 5000DP per month.........
 

Virgo

Bronze
Oct 26, 2013
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I dont think so...

DR is a long way behind in "real" world internet speed race.

It is possible that both are right. One thing is MAXIMAL available internet speed. Another is AVERAGE Internet speed.

It is possible that the maximal available is far higher in the US. Yet, the average speed (considering what each Internet user actually has at its disposal) is lower in the US. For example, the article says:

"We meet students who attend school in Chattanooga yet only have satellite Internet at home. Bad weather can affect their connections, and students must resort to doing homework at school or finding spaces in the city where they can work like the church.

Digital access is divided across the United States: 19 million people don't have access to fixed broadband and in cities like Miami, New Orleans and Dallas, over one-third of people do not have access to high-speed Internet."

So, once you consider the users mentioned above, the average Internet speed in the US could be relatively low (even if the maximal available is extremely high).

Just a thought.
 

popeye

Bronze
Jan 22, 2016
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It is possible that both are right. One thing is MAXIMAL available internet speed. Another is AVERAGE Internet speed.

It is possible that the maximal available is far higher in the US. Yet, the average speed (considering what each Internet user actually has at its disposal) is lower in the US. For example, the article says:

"We meet students who attend school in Chattanooga yet only have satellite Internet at home. Bad weather can affect their connections, and students must resort to doing homework at school or finding spaces in the city where they can work like the church.

Digital access is divided across the United States: 19 million people don't have access to fixed broadband and in cities like Miami, New Orleans and Dallas, over one-third of people do not have access to high-speed Internet."

So, once you consider the users mentioned above, the average Internet speed in the US could be relatively low (even if the maximal available is extremely high).

Just a thought.

my brain is starting to hurt :cross-eye
 
Feb 7, 2007
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19 million people don't have access to fixed broadband and in cities like Miami, New Orleans and Dallas, over one-third of people do not have access to high-speed Internet."

How many people do not have access to Broadband internet in cities like La Vega, Bani, San Pedro, San Francisco, etc.... to put it into perspective. I am sure it will be more than 1/3. "Paqueticos Orange/Claro" do not count.

So we are back to square one.
 

Conchman

Silver
Jul 3, 2002
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www.oceanworld.net
I have the fastest possible residential internet from Claro at my house in Cofresi. Youtube videos stop and buffer and I cannot live stream football games and get a good resolution picture.

When I go to the US, every time I use the internet anywhere its, about 100 times faster.
 

DRDone

Member
Sep 29, 2014
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Where are the mods on this one. I think anyone insinuating this should be banned or at least suspended from the site. This is beyond absurd. EPB is offering 10 Gbps in Chatanooga and 1 Gig is turning into a standard offering all over the US.
I have 100 Mbps from a cable provider, and they are all looking to upgrade to fiber because they can't compete at these speeds.
 

william webster

Platinum
Jan 16, 2009
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I guess I am wrong with the speeds. But I tell you this, I go to the US frequently and use internet in a friend's house or their office and I have yet to see a connection that is even close in DL speed to the one I have here.

I have the worst situation , I expect.... an air signal - no wires.

But, when it sings, it's faster than anything I have in the US (Verizon FIOS) or Canada.

It just doesn't sing enough.....:mad:
 

SKY

Gold
Apr 11, 2004
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You get Fiber Optic from Claro here and I guarantee it is tons better than the crap AT@T or Comcast gives out in Miami, Ft. Lauderdale area.
 
Feb 7, 2007
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I have 100 Mbps from a cable provider, and they are all looking to upgrade to fiber because they can't compete at these speeds.

They do not need to upgrade to fiber, they just need to upgrade to DOCSIS 3.1 which supports 10 gbps down / 1 gbps up.
 

Virgo

Bronze
Oct 26, 2013
824
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Where are the mods on this one. I think anyone insinuating this should be banned or at least suspended from the site. This is beyond absurd. EPB is offering 10 Gbps in Chatanooga and 1 Gig is turning into a standard offering all over the US.
I have 100 Mbps from a cable provider, and they are all looking to upgrade to fiber because they can't compete at these speeds.
If you had bothered to read my post above perhaps it would have saved you some effort.

Faster internet does not necessarily mean faster PEAK Internet. Even if a few users enjoy extremely fast Internet connections, it is POSSIBLE that the AVERAGE for the country or region may be relatively low.

So, a country with faster available PEAK rates conceivably could have lower AVERAGE Internet speed than another country.

Can you understand that?

In fact, per the respected Akamai report the US AVERAGE Internet speed is only 12.6 Mb/s, which is exceeded by many countries, including many small ones, and some relatively modest ones like the Czech Republic and Romania.

That report does not cover the DR, though.

P.S. I do NOT know whether or not the DR has an average Internet speed higher than the US. I just offered that as a possibility. One reason why the US average is relatively low is the usage of Satellite links. Such links are rarely used by normal users in the DR.