Why 6 Republican Senators Think You Don't Need Faster Broadband (cio.com)

Posted by samzenpus on Monday January 25, 2016 @03:09PM from the why-in-such-a-rush? dept.

itwbennett writes: Broadband in the United States still lags behind similar service in other industrialized countries, so Congress made broadband expansion a national priority, and it offers subsidies, mostly in rural areas, to help providers expand their offerings,' writes Bill Snyder. And that's where an effort by the big ISPs and a group of senators to change the definition of broadband comes in. Of course, the ISPs want the threshold to be as low as possible so it's easier for them to qualify for government subsidies. In a letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, dated January 21, 2016, the senators called the current broadband benchmark of 25 Mbps downstream and 3 Mbps upstream 'arbitrary' and said that users don't need that kind of speed anyway. '[W]e are aware of few applications that require download speeds of 25 Mbps.' the senators wrote, missing the simple fact that many users have multiple connected devices.

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25 Mb/s would be amazing!! but.... by nichogenius · 2016-01-25 15:42 · Score: 5, Interesting

but.... I would be happy if my parent's rural location could get a consistent 2 Mb/s up and down connection without paying $100/month for high latency satellite.
1. Re: 25 Mb/s would be amazing!! but.... by Anonymous Coward · 2016-01-25 16:04 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  There's an easy solution to that. Order a POTS line then tell them your FAX doesn't work. They are legally required by the state to make that work, and they'll fight the city to be allowed to replace wiring and equipment. That's what I did, and now 160 kbps DSL now works for me.