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."

Comments

Let's do some basic math

[atari2600a]

4K TV's are already a thing, & Netflix offers a "super HD" streaming option. A quick google shows that these streams can be anywhere from 0.4-0.6Mbps, which is really .5-.6MB/s. When "LTE" was being pushed as a benefit of the CONSUMER (big fucking mistake once you look at the resulting bill from the data plan), their speeds claimed like twice that.