FCC to Require Faster Speeds for Broadband Subsidies

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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Federal subsidies are going to be just a bit harder for broadband providers to come by unless the companies meet the newly adopted standard of 10Mbps download rather than its current rate of 4Mbps.

Broadband providers AT&T and Verizon had opposed the speed increase, and one of the FCC's Republican commissioners questioned whether the new speed requirement could limit deployment.
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Ehh, a step in the right direction I guess. But what about the upload? 10Mbs down isn't great, but when paired with 10Mbps/1Mbps...it goes from not great to pure crap.
 
Cable companies have more sway than the phone companies. That answers that question. And another example of government killing competition. More government will be the cure, of course.
 
I would have thought it would have been 10Mb already. It should be more like 25Mb now. I suppose if I lived in an area that had little to nothing for internet 10 would be somewhat revolutionary. 4mbit doesn't even cover HD youtube videos, I don't think.
 
Why do we honestly need faster speeds? 4mbps is more than adequate for what most people do. Even when I had a 2/768k limit, gaming on the X360 was usually not a problem due to having an awesome low lag. My 7/1 connection now is fine unless I am downloading a 20gig day one update for Halo.
 
Or an even better approach ... get rid of subsidies completely and just deregulate the broadband market to encourage competition ... as much as most companies are charging for broadband services they don't need subsidies
 
amdgamer said:
Why do we honestly need faster speeds? 4mbps is more than adequate for what most people do. Even when I had a 2/768k limit, gaming on the X360 was usually not a problem due to having an awesome low lag. My 7/1 connection now is fine unless I am downloading a 20gig day one update for Halo.
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4mbps is shit for streaming HD video, which is very often the primary bandwidth hog in many homes.
 
amdgamer said:
Why do we honestly need faster speeds? 4mbps is more than adequate for what most people do. Even when I had a 2/768k limit, gaming on the X360 was usually not a problem due to having an awesome low lag. My 7/1 connection now is fine unless I am downloading a 20gig day one update for Halo.
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The standard for uncompressed 1080p feed is 5mb , add all the stuff on you like ipads phones laptops in the home to browse ,youll see quickly even 10mb would get saturated quickly.
 
amdgamer said:
Why do we honestly need faster speeds? 4mbps is more than adequate for what most people do. Even when I had a 2/768k limit, gaming on the X360 was usually not a problem due to having an awesome low lag. My 7/1 connection now is fine unless I am downloading a 20gig day one update for Halo.
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Because most house holds have more than one person living there. If Ma and Pa Kettle are Skyping, Junior is gaming, and Sissie is on Youtube than that 4mps is not enough.
 
Oh and these ISP's are continually trying to justify their need to throttle people due to lack of throughput, well in stead of throttling why don't they increase the bandwidth. There are plenty of countries that have 2X, 3X, even more than the US.

So ISP's quit worrying about maximizing your profits so your Board can all get new freaking yachts this year and invest in your pipes. You might actually draw in more customers due to being a quality service, as hard as that is to imagine.
 
It will be a step in the right direction if isps are required to actually deliver the minimum speed rather than just market it that way and get out of it by saying "up to x speed".
 
pcjunkie said:
Just make them a utility already...
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If this were to happen, it would fall under the regulation of the FCC. It would NOT be considered a "utility" like power lines.

If it falls under the FCC, it would allow them to regulate it like they already do Over-The-Air broadcast (TV & Radio) as well as Cable.

Consider what would happen if the FCC could regulate "data streams" in the same way they regulate Radio and TV.

From the FCC's website:

2. No Blocking: That no legal content may be blocked
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This is the most important aspect. What is "lawful content"? Has anyone making these laws offered to explain what means? What do you think it means?

Is hate speech lawful? What is hate speech? Will we be able to say those things on the internet once it's regulated?
 
From <any> governments perspective, the Internet is the most dangerous thing that has been created since the printing press.

It allows far to much interaction between the people themselves with little to no intervention or supervision by those in power.

This is historically very bad. You need to understand this.

Be wary of any government telling you they should have control of information.
 
Broadband providers AT&T and Verizon had opposed the speed increase, and one of the FCC's Republican commissioners questioned whether the new speed requirement could limit deployment.
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Here's the thing, on one hand yeah it could limit deployment because now AT&T & Verizon don't get free handouts for delivering a subpar product. On the other hand their ADSL service does not work in rural areas because those homes are so far away from COs usually, and it's not cost beneficial to put out VDSL cabinets.

I'm all for this because if these big multi-billion dollar companies need to be paid off to do something like this? Then fuck 'em. There are other ways to get broadband out there.
 
doho7744 said:
Because most house holds have more than one person living there. If Ma and Pa Kettle are Skyping, Junior is gaming, and Sissie is on Youtube than that 4mps is not enough.
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In that case, set some priorities and rules. Life is a resource allocation problem and what better way for families to experience that. Unless you live in certain areas, you can always buy the faster speeds and customize your bandwidth to your needs. Even when I was living in rural Alaska, I still had 10Mbps through DSL or 30 Mbps through cable although GCI put strict limits on bandwidth usage.
 
jpm100 said:
Cable companies have more sway than the phone companies. That answers that question. And another example of government killing competition. More government will be the cure, of course.
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It's more like a cure for corporate greed scumbags. We've seen that corporations will do left to their own. Provide the least amount of product for the highest possible gain. Cable companies don't want competition.
 
amdgamer said:
Why do we honestly need faster speeds? 4mbps is more than adequate for what most people do. Even when I had a 2/768k limit, gaming on the X360 was usually not a problem due to having an awesome low lag. My 7/1 connection now is fine unless I am downloading a 20gig day one update for Halo.
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I can't tell if you're trolling or if you're the only one in the house using the internet.
Try living in a household with 2 tv's chromecasting Netflix and HBO Go, plus a Xbox 360 and 4 PCs.
I've got a 15/1 connection, let me rephrase that, I PAY FOR a 15/1 connection of which I receive 2/.5 when my PC is the only thing on, thank you Time Warner.
The second anyone starts to chromecast, surf the net or play Xbox my PC gaming connection goes to hell.
My only other option is AT&T, which is not an option at all.
 
jpm100 said:
Cable companies have more sway than the phone companies. That answers that question. And another example of government killing competition. More government will be the cure, of course.
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Pretty sure ISPs "convincing" local governments that franchisement is the way to go with their lines kills competition. Companies don't compete with each other given the choice they rather stifle competition because it's more reliable way to make profits. A minimal regulatory government is the only way to guarantee competition. Ofc the key point there is a government that regulates business practices; not bought off because company x lobbied for 1000 hours in front of a committee who only heard 20 hours from different sides.
 
SGA76 said:
I can't tell if you're trolling or if you're the only one in the house using the internet.
Try living in a household with 2 tv's chromecasting Netflix and HBO Go, plus a Xbox 360 and 4 PCs.
I've got a 15/1 connection, let me rephrase that, I PAY FOR a 15/1 connection of which I receive 2/.5 when my PC is the only thing on, thank you Time Warner.
The second anyone starts to chromecast, surf the net or play Xbox my PC gaming connection goes to hell.
My only other option is AT&T, which is not an option at all.
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You should probably look into a better router or setting up QoS on the one you have.
 
wont change anything. Frontier gets money from CAF and they do shit, we actually got our speed DOWNGRADED about a year ago. they need to supply 10/1 so what they'll do it let a few folks get 10/1 but then continue to throttle traffic anyway because they don't want to pay the interconnects for the bandwidth. So they'll say they give 10/1 but no one will actually be able to get it. We are lucky most evenings if we can get 56k speeds. its amazing.

I would love them to pull through and actually upgrade but no way they will. its just a bunch a shit.
 
amdgamer said:
In that case, set some priorities and rules. Life is a resource allocation problem and what better way for families to experience that. Unless you live in certain areas, you can always buy the faster speeds and customize your bandwidth to your needs. Even when I was living in rural Alaska, I still had 10Mbps through DSL or 30 Mbps through cable although GCI put strict limits on bandwidth usage.
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Honey can you turn the lights off in the lounge room, I need to use the electricity in the bathroom for an hour.
 
Howbout mandate line sharing, that would open the lines up to free market forces.
 
amdgamer said:
Why do we honestly need faster speeds? 4mbps is more than adequate for what most people do. Even when I had a 2/768k limit, gaming on the X360 was usually not a problem due to having an awesome low lag. My 7/1 connection now is fine unless I am downloading a 20gig day one update for Halo.
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I am glad I have a strong stomach after this comment! :p

I have 5 people in my household that use internet at the same time.
Netflix, online gaming, browsing etc, can really eat up some bandwidth. My middle son does competitive gaming so it needs to be fast.
 
ocellaris said:
You should probably look into a better router or setting up QoS on the one you have.
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It's not the router, it happens when I connect straight to the DOCIS 3 modem.
Large transfers between the PCs are near instantaneous.
Its Time Warner.
 
I'm still behind my original 100mbs/10mbs should be broadband and refuse to give any more tax breaks or grants to companies that fail to comply stance I've had since the begining of last year.
Too many big companies getting big handouts making record profits for providing a sub par service.
 
Would be nice if they did this, force the ISP to give 10/1 constant. Tired of dropping down to below a meg connection..
 
Or stop supporting local monopolies, and bring anti-trust lawsuits against the ISPs that have backroom deals not to compete with each other. Start breaking up Comcast, AT&T, and other telecommunications companies that are too large with too many divisions.

The government is not supposed to be a manager, just a referee in the ring that makes sure people are playing fair and breaks up monopolies the way a boxing ref breaks up clenches. Its just there to ensure fair and constant competition, something we don't have.
 
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