Experience stories of ordinary households who were asked to spend more than 3 million yen as construction costs for internet lines

The cost required to open a new internet line at home is generally about tens of thousands of yen at the highest, but the cost of laying an internet line for a couple living in the United States is over $ 27,119 (about 3.71 million yen). He reports a horrifying story of being asked for a high cost.

Couple bought home in Seattle, then learned Comcast Internet would cost $ 27,000 | Ars Technica
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/06/couple-bought-home-in-seattle-then-learned-comcast-internet-would-cost-27000/

It was Zachary Korn and his wife Lauryl Zenobi, who live in Seattle, Washington, who were asked to pay a very high cost for laying the internet connection. The couple bought a Seattle home in July 2019, but the home they bought didn't have an internet connection.

The house purchased by the couple is located in an urban area with bus and railroad stations nearby, and within a few kilometers of the house is T-Mobile Park, home of the Seattle Mariners professional baseball team. And there is 'Rumen Field,' the home of the American football team 'Seattle Seahawks.' These stadiums are named after major internet service providers T-Mobile and Lumen, but Korn's home doesn't have access to T-Mobile's home internet services, although Lumen's services are available. I could only use a low-speed service with a maximum download speed of 3 Mbps and a maximum upload speed of 500 kbps.

In the block next to the house that the couple bought, there is a fictitious power line that Comcast used to pull the line into each home. However, the closest connection to the couple's house was across the highway, so the only way to get the line was under the road. Therefore, the couple inquired about the line laying to Comcast, but they said that they could not get useful information because they were fooled by multiple persons in charge. The couple, who had not been able to obtain useful information for several months, consulted with the office of city council member Deborah Wallez . As a result, I was informed by Comcast that a few days after consulting with Mr. Warez, I started to estimate the line construction.

In November 2020, a few months after the start of the quote, Comcast sent an email to the couple saying, 'It costs $ 27,119 to install an internet connection.' The email said, 'The actual cost is 80,000 dollars (about 11 million yen), but you can just pay a part of it', but the cost was too high, so the couple again Talk to Mr. Warez. Mr. Warez communicated the problem to the city's broadband personnel.

Then, in April 2021, the city's broadband representative said, 'The city does not have the authority to request Comcast to lay a line. Internet operators can expect to get many contracts by laying a line. Except for cases, it is common to ask the contractor for the cost of laying the line. In this case, the line has already been laid in a neighboring house. ' Arrived. In addition, the response from the person in charge of broadband stated that the cost of about 3.71 million yen would be required for the construction to install the underground cable of 181 feet (about 55 meters).

The couple gave up laying an internet line due to the high cost, and signed an MVNO plan ' UnlimitedToGo ' with unlimited communication capacity using the line of a major mobile communication operator such as AT & T. The couple have been working at home before the pandemic of the new coronavirus, making about 6 hours of video calls per day. However, it is said that the communication speed of Internet communication by UnlimitedToGo will decrease during times when the line is busy, such as in the morning and evening.

The couple considered a contract for the satellite Internet service ' Starlink ' to stabilize their internet connection, but Starlink's line speed test app gave good results, probably because there are a lot of tall trees around their home. I couldn't get it. In addition, high-speed 5G communication is not deployed in the area where the couple live. '(The house we live in) is great outside of the internet, but the lack of a reliable and stable internet connection in 2022 is a problem,' said Korn.