For quality broadband, it's Japan by a mile

Tuesday 16th September, 05:08 AM JST

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sageb1 at 03:31 PM JST - 16th September

Okinawa's pipe is hogged by USmil hence the slowness!
wibble at 03:31 PM JST - 16th September

I disagree, I test my sevice on Hikari Flets currently and get around 60mbit within Japan and 30mbit to US sites.

A lot of it is not the infrastructure of how it gets to your home, but the ISP you choose to use and how they are peered with other oragnisations. I use spinnet.jp as my provider and they have been awesome since day 1 (with an English helpdesk service no less). They seem now to be owned by Softbank but were originally AT&T hance I suspect their good US/International peering.
soldave at 04:15 PM JST - 16th September

No it's not. Okinawa's pipe is fine if you live in the major towns. Once you get out to the sticks a little then there is very little service provided and NTT seem to have no intentions of extending the coverage anytime soon.
Zybster at 04:20 PM JST - 16th September

gogogo, there is no such a thing as "Japanese internet outside of Japan." Once you want to connect to a site OUTSIDE of Japan you can' obviously use the Japanese lines, you have to rely on the "foreign" lines. And that's why you'll be getting lower speeds on non-Japanese lines, because they are foreign, which in this case means "inferior."
SimondB at 04:38 PM JST - 16th September

I recently left Japan after nine years. And as one earlier poster said - you turn it on and it is there. Worked just fine and then a bit better for me (apart from the time the provider called me up and told me to stop using e-mule from whence I was getting an endless stream of movies).

Now living in NZ and the internet here is slower then a hung over Monday. And you have to pay more for how much you download. Plans have been announced for big improvements but hey, Japan rocks with broadband.
Nessie at 05:15 PM JST - 16th September

Good article, JT. Thanks.

When I look at pages with someone in another country over the phone, my always load much faster. The speed is great. Now, if only I could have my 70,000-yen phone line deposit back, you damn thieves at NTT. And would you tell your Flets lackies to stop stuffing my mailbox EVERY SINNGLE FRIGGIN' WEEK with large manila folders of signup promomtions? Give it a rest, already.
Freespeech at 05:44 PM JST - 16th September

Lousy article !

Not a single figure we can look at, not a word to make distinctions between the connection technologies (ADSL, FTTH, coax cable...).

Why not publish a chart taken out of the study ? Otherwise, your comparisons are just chit chat my dear friends.
chibaman at 06:28 PM JST - 16th September

Yes the speed is good, no problems with the quality there. But what's with all the mosaics and blurring? There are a few quality problems with the clarity of video. I'm trying to familiarise myself with Japanese culture and behavioural patterns, but I've just about had enough with the pixellation and am almost at the point of giving up for today.
helloklitty at 06:02 PM JST - 17th September

And all the credit goes to the "divine" former Prime Minister Mori, believe it or not.
Anung at 09:14 PM JST - 17th September

I hate to say it but South Korea's service is way faster from what I have expirienced. Japan has good service but not that good.
taikan at 09:17 AM JST - 18th September

helloklitty, I have two questions. First, what did former Prime Minister Mori do that entitles him to credit for the high quality of broadband service in Japan? Second, is Japan willing to send him to the US so he can work his magic again?
buzz at 10:10 AM JST - 18th September

We were an early adopter of YahooBB (now SoftbankBB?) and that was provided over NTT copper pair. We still use it. Not as fast as the fiber Flets keeps trying to throw at us but we don't wish to give up the YahooBB Phone. Never had any trouble with the BB-Phone. Crystal clear connection all the time with no drops or echoes and just pennies per hour. The more folks drop YahooBB and move over to fiber then the more bandwidth for me. Thanks!
helloklitty at 05:30 PM JST - 18th September

First, what did former Prime Minister Mori do that entitles him to credit for the high quality of broadband service in Japan?

In September 2000, former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori announced he would make Japan the world's most advanced country in the area of IT within five years.

http://sugita.us/Japan%20Today%20-%20Japan%20still%20too%20slow%20on%20Internet%20usage.pdf
gogogo at 05:46 PM JST - 18th September

Zybster: I agree, Usen actually told me that they don't care about connection problems outside of Japan. I had a problem connecting to sites in America ONLY using Usen, they found out it was their uplink provider in the US but didn't care about it because it's not their problem. I told them it's their problem because they are an internet company, they replied saying it's not in Japan they dont care.
cwhite at 12:05 AM JST - 21st September

well duh, any connection outside Japan is bound to be slower especially when using only dedicated underwater trucks. The best time to surf the US is when they are asleep.