The Netherlands: Dsl Heaven Or Hell?

[rik]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/22/33330.html

In a matter of weeks the Netherlands have turned into DSL heaven, with prices dropping as low as €14.95 a month. DSL users were used to €40 and €50 plans just two months ago. Now providers and, more surprising, customers, are complaining.

In August Versatel offshoot Zon introduced its €14.95 DSL service; Wanadoo, Het Net and Tiscali soon followed with similar offers. (By compairions Tiscali UK cut-price DSL product, announced Thursday, is a meagre 150 Kbps 'broadband' package for £15.99 - €22 - a month.)

This week Dutch company Speedlinq joined the fray with Europe's first "go as you please service". There is no subscription. Users buy five gigabytes for just €22.50 and they can use that amount whenever they want.

Although providers are slashing prices, few are happy. Wanadoo Benelux director Jean Jacques de Prins this week warned that his company is not going to make any money. "We used to have the highest DSL prices in Europe, now we seem to have the lowest," he said.

Customers also complain when they discover that most offers come with strings attached. Some cut-price deals are only temporary, while others have a usage cap of 250 MB. If you exceed the data limit, you have to pay extra.

Also, many providers are unable to cope with the demand. Users are told they have to wait three months before they can get a DSL connection. The Dutch consumer watchdog says it is flooded with complaints.

KPN Telecom, by far the biggest DSL provider in the Netherlands, only offers cut price DSL through it subsidiary Het Net ("The Net'". Its main DSL providers Xs4all and Planet Internet haven't lowered prices yet. Instead, they will increase bandwidth next month.

But subscribers are still not impressed: they believe that their subscription (€52 a month) is too high compared to recent cut price offers. That's bad news for KPN and others in the Netherlands and elsewhere in Europe: The price can only go down, not up.

[MSNwar]

For those of us in Europe that is good news. Here in Germany I pay about EURO 50 a month for ADSL 1500 with a 2 Gig limit.

[Aaron]

2Gb a month limit? that must suck considering a 56K User can get 8-10Gb a month

[MSNwar]

Yep, it sux. After the 2 Gig limit I am stopped dead in my tracks unless I pay an additional charge. Typically, most people join AOL and get unlimited bandwidth and unlimited useage for EURO 20.00. The cavet is you must have a broadband connection. So we are talking EURO 70.00 a month. Cheaper ADSL packages exist but we are looking at slowwwer speeds. 56K users receive no deals what so ever. They typically pay EURO 40 a month with a 1 GB limit.

[orange]

i just dont know it tyhe speeds are slower than over here in belgium i live aproxx 5Km from the netherlands and work there so i can compare

there dl-speed stops on 350 Kb/s isp telenet belgium stops at 700 and belgacom stops at 450 so its a connection with less bandwith and i guess while many people are going to sign in the traffic on the most lines will increase dramaticly what is going to slow down even more oon the bandwith

a few months back was the cable here also instalation for 0€ instead of 125 € it still is exept if u dll much they will check if u r running imesh of kazaa orso and then they inform the riaa sinds then internet is going a little more faster then usual even on the peak hours

btw over here i pay 70 €/the month for 20gb download and 3gb upload

[FthrJACK]

move to sweden you crazy fools!!

im packing my bags now, they seem to be the only country to have decent Internet connections for sensible prices in Europe.

[Drewdatrip]

I pay about 65 Us dollers for 1.5 down 256 up Cable line. Pretty consistant speeds.

We all should be jelious of the connections in Japan!

There freaking cell phone are faser then most of our DSL connections.

|Drew|

[PuPu]

1 MB / 512 kbit/s

250 mb webspace

no gb limits

51e here in Finland