For quality broadband, it's Japan by a mile

I listen to a few podcasts from the US and they are always talking about connection issues. To be honest, my connection is so good I never even think about it. I turn on the tap, get water, turn on the switch, have light, click on something and I get it. I use Kyushu Electric Company and a speed test outs me in the top 2% worldwide.

Obviously, depending on where in Japan you live. NTT have told me I should feel myself lucky I can get 20kb/sec download speeds and they have no plans to improve that in the future.

20kb. You on the top of mount fuji. I have Dled over a gig in less than an hour before. Im usually running at 180 to 240 kbs on NTT with asdl.

Japans internet is the best I have ever used. Even cell phone access is great.

40-55 Mbps download, 25-35 Mbps upload with NTT fibre to both home and office. 4 hours of downtime in 5 years, and the tech came on Sunday afternoon to fix it...

I call that quality service.

I remember when many were criticizing Japan as being behind back in the dark days of dial-up, but it seems being a late adapter has allowed some leapfrogging over problems being experienced in other countries.

DXXJP - nope, just in Okinawa.

Oh, yeah! You've gotta love the internet system here. Unlimited downloads and high speed connections. It makes the Australian system seem like it's from the dark ages by having to buy download time by the megabyte. Time to check my iPod to see how much more music I can squeeze onto it.

finally, all gaijins have agreed and are happy. Way to Go TJ, you found an article where no one is bashing Japan...

Let's see how many posts we get before some US-based poster whines that "it's easy for Japan with such a closely spaced population" crap. Please remember poster, that's no excuse for not having world-class internet access within densely-populated regions of your country.

...mkay?

Total crap, Japan's internet is extremely good INSIDE Japan. Go outside you still get good speeds but nothing to rave about.

Goto speedtest.net and take a look.

Okinawa's pipe is hogged by USmil hence the slowness!

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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

And all the credit goes to the "divine" former Prime Minister Mori, believe it or not.

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.

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?

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!

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

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.

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.