If you compare it to the situation before and after, it's a huge benefit.
> They're nearly dead last when it comes to broadband in Europe.
First, you assume there is no competition in other europeen countries. There is. Example in Poland: https://rentflatpoland.com/internet-provider-choose/
Then you need to adjust to the cost of life.
Free offers now 1Gb fiber for 30 euros a month. That's 2,5% of the minimum wage (1173 euros)
In Poland, the best I could find is 300Mbps for 60pln, which is 2.9% of the minimum wage (473,27 euros). So more expensive, for something 3 time slower.
And don't get me started on the modem. ISP in France provide crazy setup for you. Like the Free ISP gives you a box with an integrated NAS, a blueray player, a torrent downloader (that you can stream on your TV) and can be configured to use a VPN.
> They rank below Russia and Poland, with a 10.8 Mbps average
Most people in Russia or Vietnam don't have internet. So you are basically comparing a country like France, where even the small countryside towns broadband, with countries where in some remote town you still flaky basic utilities.
Russia seems modern, but it's so huge, covering everything is freaking hard.
Vietnam is very rural.
Poland is getting pretty modern now, but that's nowhere near french level if you get out far from the cities.
People bringing up Vietnam in a perjorative sense don’t understand how good Vietnam internet is.
They're 27 out of 31 in Europe as of a year ago, per Akamai's connectivity report. They rank below Russia and Poland, with a 10.8 Mbps average. The US was at 18.7 Mbps, with 48% above 15 Mbps. France only had 18% above that line.
Vietnam came in at 9.5 Mbps by comparison, and Malaysia was at 8.9 Mbps. France has nearly 20 times the GDP per capita of Vietnam.