←back to thread

Man who built ISP instead of paying Comcast $50K expands to hundreds of homes

(arstechnica.com)
1135 points carride | 1 comments | 10 Aug 22 13:23 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
Show context
H1Supreme ◴[10 Aug 22 16:32 UTC] No.32414690[source]▶
> 1Gbps with unlimited data for $79 a month

Wow, sign me up. Comcast, which has a monopoly on my market, charges me a few bucks more per month, for 150mbps.

replies(7): >>32414803 #>>32415160 #>>32415699 #>>32415799 #>>32415994 #>>32416247 #>>32418396 #
capableweb ◴[10 Aug 22 16:38 UTC] No.32414803[source]▶
The costs for internet in the US still surprises me, how on earth can it be so expensive?! I understand some countries, but in the US, it seems high costs are because "because we can", not because it has to be like that.

In comparison, you get 1 Gbps symmetric fiber connection in most countries in Europe for under ~$30/month. In some, you even get it for under $10/month (like Romania, which has surprisingly awesome internet infrastructure).

replies(8): >>32414923 #>>32415237 #>>32415246 #>>32415286 #>>32415555 #>>32417128 #>>32420166 #>>32420766 #
missedthecue ◴[10 Aug 22 17:06 UTC] No.32415286[source]▶
Comcast has 189,000 employees who make US salaries. It costs a lot less to dig a trench in Romania than in Seattle.

You can look at the profit margins. 11.3% for Comcast as of June 2022. That tells me they aren't simply collecting the difference between US and Romanian internet prices in profit.

Of course, far be it from me to defend Comcast, but this is basically just the concept of purchasing power parity (PPP)

replies(4): >>32415446 #>>32415540 #>>32416026 #>>32420172 #
wbsss4412 ◴[10 Aug 22 17:16 UTC] No.32415446{3}[source]▶
Are those margins only on their broadband business? Comcast has other ventures as well.
replies(1): >>32417171 #
1. missedthecue ◴[10 Aug 22 19:24 UTC] No.32417171{4}[source]▶
Good question. I briefly looked into it and it seems they do break out the numbers for cable communications division (as well as media and entertainment) but I couldn't find a profit margin figure without opening the whole 10K and my calculator. Worth noting that the great majority of their business is cable communications.

However, Charter Communications is a competitor that is more of a pure play and their margin is 10.8%