The end of free PC hardware market in Europe.

[Pilotasso]

If greece declares itself insolvent, all debts would be resetted. Now whos to blame then? Other countries such as portugal, spain, italy may watch the ongoing Development with much interest.

Myself, I wouldnt invest a penny into any stocks or assurances anymore. Estate may be the safest bet so far...

 

In the case of my country Im convinced we are going all the way to pay the debt unless the entire western economy collapses.

 

here the cultural mentality is: better starve than losing face before others.

 

Want something even funnier?

 

We forgiven all debts worth billions to 3rd world countries (most are OPEC countries) unilateraly for years even as we were facing IMF bailout a year ago. Some of these are lending money and aquiring the banks in difficulties :hehe: Go figure!!!

Edited January 9, 2012 by Pilotasso

[PlainSight]

Pretty much most european countries and across the pond follow the formula:

 

Country= greece - K years :lol:

 

No matter how much denial there is.

 

In the case of portugal K is the smallest to match the size of the landmass. :D

 

We're having this situation like in Gulf war i think, when the US tanks were already in Baghdad but their general goes on telly saying we'll be victorious :lol:

 

Good job, commies :thumbup:

[agrasyuk]

looking at pictures of protesters in Greece and reading about all kind of strikes every other day makes computer hardware cost look like no that big of a deal...

[Togg]

But we also pay for each empty CD-, DVD- or BluRay-Medium, even for memory chips for Smartphones or MP3-Players. There are even higher fees for devices that are able to record media. And of course there is a special tax for electronic amusement devices, being added on top of those. And yes, PC-Hardware is in this category as well.

 

The difference between countries in Europe is interesting.

 

In France the price of an empty CD is 12 times higher than in Germany, 6 times higher for DVD. And 2 times higer for both compared to Spain and Belgium.

 

So, lot of people order CD / DVD from Luxembourg or Belgium.

 

Currenlty, they think to tax cloud-computing...

[Togg]

29.99 € per month for 20 Mbps, that's all. No limit on download or upolad.

[EtherealN]

14.4mbps cellular connection. 20€ per month, no traffic cap at all. (Though they reserve the right to reduce bandwidth if I have used a lot of it (defined as 20 times the "average user") and the network is congested.)

 

Same on the cell phone - I pay 60€ per month and have free traffic on calls, messages, and an uncapped 14.4mbps data connection. And of course no bull about restricting the use of the hotspot function, tethering and such stuff, I do whatever I want with it. :)

 

If I lived in a city I could get myself an uncapped 100/100 fiber for cheap, but they don't drag those out to the bush unfortunately. (Or one of those Telia gigabit fibers, unsure what they charge for those though.)

Edited January 9, 2012 by EtherealN

[sungsam]

34 Euros per month here, with 24 Mbps Internet, no traffic cap, including traditional Voice phone free of charge on National level + 40 Countries WorldWide + 1 Hour free to mobile calls, the rest calls are charged.

Edited January 9, 2012 by sungsam

[4c Hajduk Veljko]

Togg, EtherealN, sungsam, what is your internet connection upload speeds? I got 15Mbps download, but only 1 Mbps upload speed for about $90 (about 65 Euro, right?) a month.

[Togg]

It's also asymmetric. I have 2.5 Mbps in download and 786 kbps in upload. It's not 20 Mbps because I live far from the DSLAM (5 km). Phone and TV are also included.

Edited January 10, 2012 by Togg

[sungsam]

Togg, EtherealN, sungsam, what is your internet connection upload speeds? I got 15Mbps download, but only 1 Mbps upload speed for about $90 (about 65 Euro, right?) a month.

 

It is ADSL with downstream 24 Mbps and Upstream 1 Mbps

[EtherealN]

Actually not sure what the advertised maximum for the connection is, but right now with 2 bars reception upload is 2mbps, which is usually where it tends to end up those times I've checked. Seen it higher a few times, seen it lower a few time, but just from the top of my head it fits the median well. (My practical download usually ends up at between 6 and 8mbps as well, which is fair enough for the low reception out here in the bush.)

[Eddie]

Togg, EtherealN, sungsam, what is your internet connection upload speeds? I got 15Mbps download, but only 1 Mbps upload speed for about $90 (about 65 Euro, right?) a month.

 

Ouch! I'm paying £50 a month for unlimited (subject to throttling at peak times for certain traffic) 50Mb down/5Mb up and my phone line.

 

From what I've heard you guys across the pond pay more for mobile (cell in American) phone services as well.

 

Quite suprising given that just about everything else tends to be much cheaper.

[clafly]

:cry: In Italy I can dream 20 Mbps. With internet key usually max 0.5 Mbps in download ..and limit at 10Gb, then I can download at 64 Kbps .. We haven't ADSL in all cities or villages..:cry: for 20€/month only internet connection, for max one hundred hours.

Edited January 10, 2012 by clafly

[SAM77]

Its not looking good for any country that doesnt have a strong manufacturing sector or resource sector. Its gonna get a whole lot worse for those guys in the coming months.

 

S&P downgraded France credit rating

France has better eco creds than the UK

Being in the EU is dragging them down and Germany is not going to let that happen to them....

[Napa]

Its not looking good for any country that doesnt have a strong manufacturing sector or resource sector. Its gonna get a whole lot worse for those guys in the coming months.

 

S&P downgraded France credit rating

France has better eco creds than the UK

Being in the EU is dragging them down and Germany is not going to let that happen to them....

 

S&P and the other 2 are not making things easier and are part of the problem. The recent downgrade was more like a hostility act than anything else against the eurozone. It seems somebody in the US wants the investors to invest in US than EU for the dollar to gain more ground on euro. Its so obvious.

[Pilotasso]

:cry: In Italy I can dream 20 Mbps. With internet key usually max 0.5 Mbps in download ..and limit at 10Gb, then I can download at 64 Kbps .. We haven't ADSL in all cities or villages..:cry: for 20€/month only internet connection, for max one hundred hours.

 

29€ for a 20 Mbit/s down and 1Mbit/s Upload with unlimited traffic. for 15€ more I would get fiber-optics 100Mbit/s here (not needed).

 

I can download stuff at 1.9MB/s easely.

 

At least there i can say I got quality service.

 

Im surprised the goverment has not made up a special tax on top of these prices, but I dont dare say it openly here to avoid getting them ideas. :)

[Pilotasso]

S&P and the other 2 are not making things easier and are part of the problem. The recent downgrade was more like a hostility act than anything else against the eurozone. It seems somebody in the US wants the investors to invest in US than EU for the dollar to gain more ground on euro. Its so obvious.

 

This is coporations VS national economies. No actual shooting, we are taking with financial cruise missiles in this, in what could be called WFW I ( world financial war I) and its going to last at least as much as a real WW. So far the exchange has been pretty much one sided.

 

I dont see people realizing this. Most of europe since 2008 still think this is a north VS south problem, PIIGS VS AAA.

 

I fear its the AAA the next target. When will people wake up and start making decisions instead of going each for himself? gaaah!!

Edited January 15, 2012 by Pilotasso

[PlainSight]

This is coporations VS national economies. No actual shooting, we are taking with financial cruise missiles in this, in what could be called WFW I ( world financial war I) and its going to last at least as much as a real WW. So far the exchange has been pretty much one sided.

 

I dont see people realizing this. Most of europe since 2008 still think this is a north VS south problem, PIIGS VS AAA.

 

I fear its the AAA the next target. When will people wake up and start making decisions instead of going each for himself? gaaah!!

 

Someone (Ahmadinejad calls them the zionist regime) wants to destroy EU morraly, culturally, financially, and racially.

[Slayer]

Your english is fine. :)

 

And yeah, we have a "tax" of sorts for TV's as well. (Though it's called a "license" here. I think most western-european countries have that system actually.) Money goes to state broadcaster. The frustrating part is that you have to pay it even if you can't receive TV broadcasts, which is the case for me. So this x-mas I gave my plasma to my kid sister. Already paid half a euro per day in license just because I play X-box like once a month, and over several years that adds up.

 

There have been talk about a tax on mp3 players as well, we already have it on DVD's and CD's. Not sure if they actually went ahead with that one though.

 

They've also been trying to require TV-license to be paid if you have a broadband connection, since our state broadcaster does also broadcast some (not all) of it's programmes via the net - but with an atrociously bad Flash plugin that barely works. :P

 

Sounds like the crooked music and movie industry have already infiltrated most of European governtments by paying off the politicians and holding everyone hostage so they can get their roalyties. ACTA is real and noone wants to believe it. Secret treaties that noone can see but movie execs get to? Here in the US the movie industry has put so much money to push their legal agenda that it would cover 10% of every elected congressman/senators campaign fund.