[sbalea]

1. I am tired of hearing this rehashed over and over again. Yes, overall density in US is lower than most countries in Europe, but even high density places like New Jersey still have plenty of spots with only one, overpriced, shitty provider. For example, I am paying $98/mo for 400/40mbps cable, and that's my only wired option. My dad's country side house at the foothills of the Romanian Carpathian mountains gets 900/450mbps FTTH service for $10/mo. 2. Back in the late 90s, both Romania and my NJ neighborhood were at the same point, twisted copper phone lines and cable TV service over coax cable. Yet 20+ years later, the differences are stark. Don't get me started on cell phone service :)

[lmilcin]

That explanation is even more strange if you figure out nothing of the infrastructure from 20 years ago still exists that could explain the difference. Every single active or passive network element must have been changed when technology evolved, likely multiple times.

I have a better explanation, and it is just greedy companies that invest absolute minimum into infrastructure, oversubscribe their internet access and pioneered worst possible customer service just because the customers have no other option.