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FCC Admits Mistakes In Measuring Broadband Competition

Posted by Zonk on from the admitting-there-is-a-problem-is-the-first-step dept.

techdirtfeed writes "For years, plenty of folks (including the Government Accountability Office) have been pointing out that the way the FCC measures broadband competition is very flawed. It simply assumes that if a single household in a zip code is offered broadband by provider A, then every household in that zip code can get broadband from provider A. See the problem? For some reason the FCC still hasn't changed its ways, but at least they're starting to realize the problem. They're now saying they need to change the way they measure competition. Commissioner Michael Copps points out: 'Our statistical methodology seems almost calculated to obscure just how far our country is falling behind many other industrialized nations in broadband availability, adoption, speed and price.'"

8 of 130 comments (clear)

  1. Seems eh... by Adambomb · · Score: 4, Funny

    So, that would make them the most naive member of the FCC they had? or is she just good at acting surprised...

    I look forward to the restructuring of the FCC after this where they purge the evil and the misguided statistics....because i'm absolutely sure that will happen.

    and no, i'm definitely not being sarcastic. at all.

    --
    Ice Cream has no bones.
  2. Plan B by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Switch to Area Code

  3. Mobile Broadband by Tofystedeth · · Score: 5, Insightful
    from TFA

    mobile broadband is only allowed for very limited applications (no video, no streaming, no downloads, no VoIP, etc.) What else does that leave? Http? I mean, when you get rid of all the stuff in that statementm, and account for a few more with the '.etc', there isn't much else you can do. I suppose maybe telnet? That is of course ignoring the fact that simply saying "no downloads" completely eliminates most everything.
    --
    "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Drink deeply or not at all."
  4. Isn't the Zip code unusually large by grahamsz · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In my parents postal code (in scotland) there are 11 homes, the exchange is less than a thousand feet from any of them so they all qualify for roughly the same speed of DSL.

    My zip code in colorado probably has several thousand homes. I have three broadband options (DSL, Cable, Wireless) but I wouldn't be surprised to know there were people in my zip who couldn't get any.

    If the FCC switched to using ZIP+4 then it would probably be a much more accurate and comparable method.

    1. Re:Isn't the Zip code unusually large by Copid · · Score: 4, Informative

      So they call everybody?

      That doesn't sound that reasonable to me at all. They should be able to provide a list of addresses or phone numbers to the broadband provider and have that provider say yay or nay. That's how you do it on the broadband providers' web sites as it is. All the regulatory agency has to do is give a more granular list for the provider to check against in their database, and then randomly sample the results to ensure that the provider didn't make a mistake or lie to them. That sounds pretty reasonable to me.
      --
      An interesting anagram of "BANACH TARSKI" is "BANACH TARSKI BANACH TARSKI"
  5. DSL only recently became available for me by Rick17JJ · · Score: 4, Informative

    Until recently 26.4 K dial-up was all that was available where I live. Neither broadband cable or DSL was available and even 56K dial-up was not available (just 26.4K). Then a few months ago DSL finally became available and I now can download at 1.5 MBs and upload at about 800 K. The 26.4K was such a pain when I was taking several college classes that had lots of graphics intensive online study material. Security updates for Windows and Linux sometimes took hours to download.

    I live in a small city in Arizona, but am not in a rural area. Most people in my Zip code did have cable and in some also had DSL available, but not where I live.

  6. USA 3rd tier country - baby bells, RIAA, MPAA by harvey+the+nerd · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I blame RIAA, it members, MPAA, Disney as much for the collapse of WorldCom (all that *dark* fiber) and the re-emergence of the "baby" Bells and the other roads hogs. Some baby Bells, etc made state level agreements ~10 years ago that should have put them more on track for capacity and last mile if they had not reneged on the provisions of such agreements.
    Yes, like Clinton, the third George's reign has helped make the world, er, country safe for our brand of state capitalism.

  7. They need to stop dumbing down US broadband by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    US broadband speeds, directional balance, and legal definitions have been dumbed down to serve the interests of the incumbent telecom and cable providers and the entertainment industry.

    DSL and cable's directionally unbalanced bandwidths are legacy broadband and are technologically obsolescent. Real broadband is bi-directional and starts at about 1 GB to the home. That's what fiber is capable of providing and is what other countries are getting or building toward. A 1 GB fiber can provide telephone, Internet, and cable TV on a single connection, and should cost no more than about $50 a month for all three combined.

    In such a system, any subscriber can become a content originator. To prevent discrimination, providers of content, applications, snd services should be legally separated from providers of bandwidth.

    This dumbing down has a serious negative impact on US competitiveness. Innovators with real broadband can conceive of applications that US innovators wouldn't imagine because of dumbed-down broadband.

    Congress and the FCC still think that broadband starts at 200 KB and that broadband is reasonably provided as a means of delivering proprietary content. They need to get up to date.