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AT&T Says 10Mbps Is Too Fast For "Broadband," 4Mbps Is Enough
An anonymous reader writes AT&T and Verizon have asked the FCC not to change the definition of broadband from 4Mbps to 10Mbps, contending that "10Mbps service exceeds what many Americans need today to enable basic, high-quality transmissions." From the article: "Individual cable companies did not submit comments to the FCC, but their representative, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA), agrees with AT&T and Verizon. 'The Commission should not change the baseline broadband speed threshold from 4Mbps downstream and 1Mbps upstream because a 4/1 Mbps connection is still sufficient to perform the primary functions identified in section 706 [of the Telecommunications Act]—high-quality voice, video, and data,' the NCTA wrote."
I think $200k top salary including bonuses far exceeds what many CEO's need for living a basic high quality life. Any more than that would just be wasted on blow and hookers.
FCC: We're redefining what constitutes "high speed broadband", as the current description is about 10 years old.
TelcomLobby: We're good with what we have now.
FCC: Unfortunately no. Your networks haven't really grown in capacity for the end-user in several years now. And by the new definitions, your service won't qualify as "high speed".
TelcomLobby: We're good with what we have now.
FCC: No, that's what we're telling you, you're not.
TelcomLobby: Uh. Can we just bribe you not to make this change? It might affect our killer bottom line!
While I don't own a gun, it's times like these I wish I fucking did.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
TFS mentions high quality video. You're not streaming high quality video with 10 or even 20Mbps.
Netflix recommends 5Mbps for HD streaming, so you are wrong.
When I called Netflix for tech support, they recommended 5MBps for HD streaming. However, their FAQ do say 5Mbps for HD streaming. Also note that they call 720p "HD". As we get more devices connected to the network and higher resolutions become standard, we will need more bandwidth.
Tell that to my 10 megaBYTE per second downstream that still has trouble with YouTube sometimes. 4Mbps would be unusably slow on the modern internet, unless you turned off all media, and adblocked everything. Hell, 10Mbps would still feel like drowning in quicksand to me, even for basic web browsing...and I doubt I'm alone.
Friend: "The NIC is misconfigured..." Me: "No prob, I'll just telnet in and fix it." *Silence*
F your ISPs in the US and F your corrupted "FCC"
I agree, but not because of this particular issue. No matter what the FCC calls it or what the rates are set at we still have the same problem: Collusion among the ISPs to ensure that they have monopolies with little to no requirement to roll-out new infrastructure and increase services. This is just a smokscreen for the FCC not doing their jobs and taking care of the big stuff...
Until this is fixed all they are doing is arguing over whether the last peanut butter chocolate chip cookie in the cookie jar is peanut butter cookie or a chocolate chip cookie when what we really need is more milk...
If that is your experience, then your speed isn't really giving you 10m byte.
Seriously man. Something is wrong.
4Mbps is too slow and I think it should be raised to 6 or 8Mbps but that's so you can support some HD quality video since almost every consumer TV now has a HD quality.
Basic web browsing uses almost no data. A friend was able to browse through my lumia last night because her internet was down and 10 minutes of browsing and sending a couple emails didn't even show on the usage summary.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
Having more than 4 Mbps is nice, but not necessary for basic web browsing, youtube etc.
"Broadband" is more than "basic web browsing". Here is the proper, formal definition of broadband: I have enough bandwidth to get my work done even while my teenage daughter is watching a movie on Netflix.
Agreed - I suspect that the translation from AT&T is as follows:
"Please don't up the definition... we suck, and don't want to have to explain why we can't provide "Broadband" to the majority of our customers anymore."
The sad part is, I bet that all the other ISPs are silently cheering AT&T on. :/
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
All of Europe is about 1/2 the size of the US. Size matters.
Area of Europe: 10.18 million km
Area of USA: 9.827 million km
So "All of Europe" is slightly larger than the USA, not "half the size".
The map you use as a citation is NOT a map of Europe. It is not even a map of the European Union.
Your apparent point, that ISP rates are proportional to population density, is also wrong. Remote areas of Finland and Sweden have very low population density, yet still have more bandwidth and better prices than some large American cities.
Give anyone 4 mbps connection who is living in an area that still has dialup as their only option, and ask them if its broadband. If someone works to bring 4/1 mbps connections to more areas, they should be able to advertise it as broadband.
That's like saying I should be able to advertise my bicycle as a car if I'm selling it in an area that is still using horses.