Microsoft Criticizes FCC Broadband Report

Exavior said:

Sadly that isn't really off much from how it is. One of the suggestions that the FCC wants to start testing is having ISPs report based on address. Talking about this with our controller at lunch. That would be a pain in the ass for us as a provider to know for the purpose of reporting by running something from our billing platform the exact speed per address. However from the consumer side it would be great as then it does paint a perfect picture of what is currently out there. So one side of our brain thinks it is great and the other side thinks it is going to be a nightmare to report on.

That said that is just one idea being passed around.

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But that seems rather simple to setup, especially for an isp that provides a router, put say a 10 meg file on router, put some software on said router to detect least usage periods and have that file uploaded to one of your servers which logs the connection speed in a DB, the address and serial number of the router could be linked at POS.

Considering most providers have a router with there own software, shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Dodge245 said:

But that seems rather simple to setup, especially for an isp that provides a router, put say a 10 meg file on router, put some software on said router to detect least usage periods and have that file uploaded to one of your servers which logs the connection speed in a DB, the address and serial number of the router could be linked at POS.

Considering most providers have a router with there own software, shouldn't be too much of a problem.

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Not that simple at all unfortunately.

Lets start off with the use their own router. Comcast has their own cable modems made and could in theory load their own software in for other functionality, On the telco side CenturyLink, AT&T and maybe Frontier still use what are basically off the shelf xDSL (ADSL/VDSL) modems that just have their name put on them with their settings preloaded, they might have a slightly change hardware wise but not thing that extreme. For the thousands of ISPs that don't fall into that 4 companies. They are going to buy standard units and not make their own. You also have the entire bring your own device shift, especially when you get to fiber and fixed wireless. Your ISP just like TV providers hate giving you that device that you have in your house. Us giving you that means that we have to buy them, we have to eat up warehouse space for them, we have to wait years to get our money back from you for us having purchased it, then we have to pay taxes for anything at the end of the year still sitting on the shelves so we would all much rather the customer go buy their own stuff or we not need to provide anything special. Of course that takes aware from a controlled experience which can be bad in of itself but is the direction most are going and looking to go as quickly as they can.

That part aside. The next issue is that your method only looks at what you have today and not what you could be sold. We already know what we sold you if you are our customer. It is in billing, that is how you get charged every month. That doesn't say though what you could be sold. If you are in an area that is 100% fiber that is easy. Whatever your ISP has in their equipment for fiber connections is the fastest. Should in theory be at least 1Gbps assuming the company has a package for that but should only be limited by what they have the hardware to pump out. When it comes to cable, what if you are only signed up today for video. That doesn't mean that you can't get internet you just decided not to take it. That needs to be reported as what the max speed is that you could get if you took internet. Next is something like xDSL. We will ignore G.Fast for a moment and only focus on VDSL and ADSL standards. If a customer is close enough for VDSL they might only want ADSL speeds so you end up with customers that might have what appears to be a max rate from their equipment of say 25Mbps, but in reality they might actually be able to get 100Mbps+. Of course that also is only looking at a single pair, a customer might be able to have 2 pairs for xDSL service bonded and get them even faster. So looking at data from the customer side will not normally be of any value in telling you the max service that you can offer them unless they are already at that max.

Then once you get through both of those issues you then have non customers. You also have to be able to report looking at IF this customer called in today to get my service what would I be able to give them and let the FCC know yes I could service John Smith at 123 Main Street Smalltown USA, I can offer him 1Gbps fiber, 100Mbps DSL, 25Mbps fixed wireless or 1Gbps cable internet.

All that said, if this was to be a requirement it isn't impossible. It will just take some work to get everything in place to report on that level. The amount of work depends on the company.