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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.
The primary qualification to be appointed by Trump is to be wholely dedicated heart and soul to dismantling all regulations. These guys make Tea Party faithfuls seem tepid in comparison. Ajit Pai however is on a committee and he can't just dismantle via fiat, he has to get enough of the other members to go along with him. If he had his way, the airwaves would be controlled by whichever corporate trade association had the biggest guns, Shadowrun style.
I'd rather have slow DSL than fast mobile, personally, because my household uses about 300GB/mo.
But the FCC thinks they're interchangable, which is a big problem.
Also 39% of rural Americans don't even have access to the current standard. As a government entity they ought to be focused on that, from a 14th Amendment perspective. If their rules are slowing new deployments, that's an equal protection issue, and the data shows that the Title II rules did just that.
https://www.fcc.gov/reports-re...
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Crony capitalism doesn't seem to be providing the best infrastructure, regulation, or competitive rates.
Government is a reflection on the people who voted and on the people who didn't vote. Infrastructure is vital, but people don't treat it as vital. They are easily distracted and directed. You don't think Donald Trump really cares that players kneel do you? No it is red meat for his base lest their accidentally wake up and smell the smoke.
In fact the times we live in have convinced me of one thing. If Nixon was in power right now, he would never be impeached in a million years.
If anyone wants to make America great again, then, well, that should not be the case, for if the only thing necessarily for evil to flourish is for it to have support in the media, and if we can't change that, well America will never be great again.
Greatness is not built on bullshit, but ethics, principles, sacrifice and hard work, and it is not the ethics principles and hard work of one person, but of countless good men and women. Great broadband requires those things as well. Merely changing the definition is not going to matter much. Our vast system of highways and roads was not built by corporations hoping for a subscription and just allowing the corporations to be more evil is unlikely to change that outcome much.
Other countries don't allow talking-heads to defame ordinary people and publish fake news. They don't even allow a broadcast network (eg. Fox news) to spread propaganda created by 1 political party. In the USA, the rich don't care and an independent voice (SCOTUS) has even decided such abuse of the truth (and thus, the people) is allowed.
Society is a conflict of the need to fit-in and belong versus 'fuck you, I got mine'. Go too far to the left and nothing gets done. Go too far right and massacres occur, usually of the rich. Most countries spend a lot of money reducing such conflicts. In the USA, such conflict is tolerated because the poor don't kill the rich, they kill each other, thus keeping the rich safe from reality.