The FCC Is Preparing To Weaken the Definition of Broadband (dslreports.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from DSLReports: Under Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act, the FCC is required to consistently measure whether broadband is being deployed to all Americans uniformly and "in a reasonable and timely fashion." If the FCC finds that broadband isn't being deployed quickly enough to the public, the agency is required by law to "take immediate action to accelerate deployment of such capability by removing barriers to infrastructure investment and by promoting competition in the telecommunications market." Unfortunately whenever the FCC is stocked by revolving door regulators all-too-focused on pleasing the likes of AT&T, Verizon and Comcast -- this dedication to expanding coverage and competition often tends to waver.

What's more, regulators beholden to regional duopolies often take things one-step further -- by trying to manipulate data to suggest that broadband is faster, cheaper, and more evenly deployed than it actually is. We saw this under former FCC boss Michael Powell (now the top lobbyist for the cable industry), and more recently when the industry cried incessantly when the base definition of broadband was bumped to 25 Mbps downstream, 4 Mbps upstream. We're about to see this effort take shape once again as the FCC prepares to vote in February for a new proposal that would dramatically weaken the definition of broadband. How? Under this new proposal, any area able to obtain wireless speeds of at least 10 Mbps down, 1 Mbps would be deemed good enough for American consumers, pre-empting any need to prod industry to speed up or expand broadband coverage.

Comments

First step in a five-step plan?

[PseudoThink]

From this Reddit post:

Repealing Net Neutrality may be the first step in a five-step plan from cable companies to combat their competition and cord-cutters:

1. Step 1: Repeal Net Neutrality, then offer new, unlimited data plans for mobile/home Internet. Convince people to buy into these "forever unlimited" data plans.
2. Step 2: Get all data usage (mobile and home) classified under a single umbrella.
3. Step 3: Quash ISP startups with new regulations making it infeasible for them to access utility poles, junctions, and network infrastructure.
4. Step 4: Implement data caps on all the "forever unlimited" data plans. ("Because we have to--don't let bandwidth abusers take your Internet!")
5. Step 5: Now you are forced to pay $100/month for up to 10-20 GB per month (hint: this translates to about 3 to 7 hours of HD Netflix per month). It will be very expensive to go over that, especially for non-preferred sites (think anything like Kodi, Tor, torrents, etc.).

Thoughts?

10MBps is just fine

[MobyDisk]

I'm sure I'll be flamed here for this, but I always thought the 25Mbps definition was too high as a "minimum definition." An HD NetFlix stream is 5Mbps. 10Mbps allows two simultaneous HD streams, or one HD stream plus plenty of headroom for other normal activities. I would rather that the FCC define it to be 10Mbps, but actually check that this bandwidth is available consistently during peak usage. The reason to make it as high as 25Mbps is because the telcos rarely actually deliver their promised speeds.