To use a concrete example, 500/200 fiber through Orange in France is about $63/month after the one-year promo period: https://boutique.orange.fr/internet/offres-fibre/jet. The closest FiOS plan is ~$80/month after the promo period for symmetric gigabit. So we're somewhat more expensive, for somewhat faster speeds. Affordability-wise, it's about the same, considering the much higher household income in the U.S.
But if you visited say Baltimore and Paris, you wouldn't realize that. "France has fiber and Maryland doesn't," you'd conclude. Population distribution in the two places is very different: most people in the U.S., especially the folks who can afford higher tiers of internet service, live outside the core cities. While Baltimore has crappy internet choices, most of Maryland lives outside Baltimore, and has fiber. Indeed, Maryland is in the top-5, just behind Sweden and way ahead of France in Akamai's tests.
To use a concrete example, 500/200 fiber through Orange in France is about $63/month after the one-year promo period: https://boutique.orange.fr/internet/offres-fibre/jet. The closest FiOS plan is ~$80/month after the promo period for symmetric gigabit. So we're somewhat more expensive, for somewhat faster speeds. Affordability-wise, it's about the same, considering the much higher household income in the U.S.
But if you visited say Baltimore and Paris, you wouldn't realize that. "France has fiber and Maryland doesn't," you'd conclude. Population distribution in the two places is very different: most people in the U.S., especially the folks who can afford higher tiers of internet service, live outside the core cities. While Baltimore has crappy internet choices, most of Maryland lives outside Baltimore, and has fiber. Indeed, Maryland is in the top-5, just behind Sweden and way ahead of France in Akamai's tests.