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FCC Proposes To Maintain US Broadband Standard of 25Mbps Down, 3Mbps Up (arstechnica.com)
The FCC is proposing to maintain the U.S. broadband standard at the current level of 25Mbps downstream and 3Mbps upstream. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has kept the standard at these speeds since 2017, despite calls to raise it from Democratic Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. This week, Pai proposed keeping the standard the same for another year. Ars Technica reports: The FCC raised the standard from 4Mbps/1Mbps to 25Mbps/3Mbps in January 2015 under then-Chairman Tom Wheeler. Ajit Pai, who was then a commissioner in the FCC's Republican minority, voted against raising the speed standard. As FCC chairman since 2017, Pai has kept the standard at 25Mbps/3Mbps despite calls to raise it from Democratic Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. This week, he proposed keeping the standard the same for another year. "This inquiry fundamentally errs by proposing to keep our national broadband standard at 25Mbps," Rosenworcel said yesterday. "It is time to be bold and move the national broadband standard from 25 Megabits to 100 Megabits per second. When you factor in price, at this speed the United States is not even close to leading the world. That is not where we should be and if in the future we want to change this we need both a more powerful goal and a plan to reach it. Our failure to commit to that course here is disappointing. I regretfully dissent." While Pai's proposal isn't yet finalized, keeping the current speed standard would likely mean that Pai's FCC will conclude that broadband deployment is already happening fast enough throughout the US. Pai could use that conclusion in attempts to justify further deregulation of the broadband industry.
With all the shenanigans lately, perhaps the best way to fix problems with providers and the FCC is to vote for canidates who don't take PAC money. Crony capitalism doesn't seem to be providing the best infrastructure, regulation, or competitive rates.
Have gnu, will travel.
at least they didn't drop it. At this point I wouldn't be surprised by anything this FCC admin does.
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but not even another cold war could inspire this government to be competitive enough to consider a reasonable national broadband standard with the chops to rival even the smallest european nation.
For a party that so champions American Exceptionalism, Ajit sold any idea of it down the crapper when he axed net neutrality in favor of corporate kickbacks. My only hope is that this grinning philistine finds his comeuppance in the history books as one of the feckless imbeciles that sped the nation from innovation.
Good people go to bed earlier.
Just to avoid getting kicked in the face for agreeing with anything he says, at all...: I hate Pai.
I'd stand in a line just to WATCH him get punched in the face, but 25/3 to meet the requirements of the term 'broadband' for these rural areas with shitty wiring and terrible population density is plenty. 25Mbps downstream is *multiple* 720p or better video streams down and at least 1-2 up. Considering the percentage of Internet traffic that is youtube and facebook and netflix, that's fair math.
Yeah, of course I want my price to go down, but that's NEVER going to happen with any provider, regardless what the FCC declares "broadband" to be. The last thing I want is to subsidize rural areas getting 1Gbps for 1 house per square mile across the whole country. Let the WISPS do it.
I had a sucky sig.
There's no reason to raise the standard if it's already not being met.
So what happens when Democrats start taking/continue taking big money from telcos and cable companies? Do you imagine that they'll fix the broadband problem and whip the telcos into line?
We should have never even needed the FCC to step in and police the Internet. The FTC already had a job to do, and it failed. Had we proper competition in ISP markets (read: less crony capitalism) the FTC's intervention would have been far less necessary. That also didn't happen.
Now Democrats - who take money from the telcos just like Republicans - are supposed to fix all of that? Please.
It's not only far below the standard of most Western countries, we pay more for it than they do for better speeds.
Pai and his cronies are corporate shills, not responsible regulators. He needs to be shown the door.