{
"$type": "site.standard.document",
"bskyPostRef": {
"cid": "bafyreiazrtvw6fizxpdc6ltdw46hon363azdm7k457p4aw62h2wgtupztm",
"uri": "at://did:plc:npppinc2x6on5fmrcemn2p5o/app.bsky.feed.post/3mj2vzdra5br2"
},
"coverImage": {
"$type": "blob",
"ref": {
"$link": "bafkreibyfyl4etcvpbs4wmdf6lwg4b4g32arvcnqdjg7opedgeeog2h35u"
},
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"size": 425968
},
"path": "/post/813413946188038144",
"publishedAt": "2026-04-09T10:53:09.000Z",
"site": "https://tumblr.sztupy.hu",
"tags": [
"mostlysignssomeportents",
"https://pluralistic.net/2026/04/07/swisscom/#stacked",
"https://www.init7.net/de/internet/fiber7/",
"https://sschueller.github.io/posts/the-free-market-lie/",
"https://www.somebits.com/weblog/tech/bad/starlink-nov-2022-data-caps.html",
"Keep reading"
],
"textContent": "mostlysignssomeportents:\n\n> ALT\n>\n> **If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:**\n>\n> **https://pluralistic.net/2026/04/07/swisscom/#stacked**\n>\n> If you live in Switzerland you can get a 25Gbit fiber link to your home. That’s 25Gbit _symmetrical_ – upload _and_ download. On a dedicated connection that’s yours and yours alone. From multiple providers. And you can switch providers with the click of a mouse. It’s the _ne plus ultra_ , _magnifico_ , _wunderschön_ :\n>\n> https://www.init7.net/de/internet/fiber7/\n>\n> In a fascinating blog post, Stefan Schüller unpacks how this came to pass, in Switzerland, a country known for its impassable mountains and its impossible national telco (Swisscom):\n>\n> https://sschueller.github.io/posts/the-free-market-lie/\n>\n> Schüller describes the Swiss system as a kind of Goldilocks approach that’s midway between two failed systems: the American “free market” system and the German state provision system.\n>\n> Most people in the US can’t get fiber at all, and if you can get it, it’s probably 1Gbit, and available from a single provider (that’s nearly my situation in Los Angeles, where I can buy 2Gbit symmetrical fiber from AT&T, who run a shared connection on old Worldcom fiber they’ve lit up). Some (very foolish) people say that Starlink represents a competitive alternative to fiber. This is nonsense – first, because Starlink is another natural monopoly (how many competing satellite constellations can we cram into stable orbits before they start smashing into each other?), and second, because satellite is _millions of times slower_ than fiber:\n>\n> https://www.somebits.com/weblog/tech/bad/starlink-nov-2022-data-caps.html\n>\n> In Germany, most people also have a single fiber provider, and the connection they get is shared, and caps out at 1-2Gbit.\n>\n> Meanwhile, the Swiss can get connections that are _far_ faster, and cheaper. How did they do it?\n>\n> Keep reading",
"title": "Switzerland’s Goldilocks fiber"
}