Ajit Pai Isn't Saying Whether ISPs Deliver the Broadband Speeds You Pay For (arstechnica.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report from Ars Technica, written by Jon Brodkin: Nearly two years have passed since the Federal Communications Commission reported on whether broadband customers are getting the Internet speeds they pay for. In 2011, the Obama-era FCC began measuring broadband speeds in nearly 7,000 consumer homes as part of the then-new Measuring Broadband America program. Each year from 2011 to 2016, the FCC released an annual report comparing the actual speeds customers received to the advertised speeds customers were promised by Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Verizon, AT&T, and other large ISPs. But the FCC hasn't released any new Measuring Broadband America reports since Republican Ajit Pai became the commission chairman in January 2017. Pai's first year as chair was the first time the FCC failed to issue a new Measuring Broadband America report since the program started -- though the FCC could release a new report before his second year as chair is complete.

For more than three months, Ars has been trying to find out whether the FCC is still analyzing Measuring Broadband America data and whether the FCC plans to release any more measurement reports. SamKnows, the measurement company used by the FCC for this program, told Ars that Measuring Broadband America is still active and that a new report is forthcoming, hopefully next month. But whether the report is released is up to the FCC, and Chairman Pai's public relations office has ignored our questions about the program. Because of Pai's office's silence, we filed a Freedom of Information Act (FoIA) request on August 13 for internal emails about the Measuring Broadband America program and for broadband speed measurement data since January 2017. By law, the FCC and other federal agencies have 20 business days to respond to public records requests. The FCC has denied Ars' request for "expedited processing," which "was warranted because the broadband measuring data is out of data, depriving American consumers of crucial information when they purchase broadband access," writes Brodkin. The FCC said, "we are not persuaded that the records you request are so urgent that our normal process will not provide them in a timely manner."

Comments

NN rules get removed

[AHuxley]

The networks can be free to innovate and grow all over the USA with less federal NN rules.
Lets add more rules and laws.

Let the cities, states and towns work out how they want to internet in their own community and cities.

The past federal regulations left a lot of slow networks in place as they passed NN rules.
Staying equally slow to meet federal NN rules is all over the USA is not network innovation.

Got a slow network?
Request the existing telco to pay more to build out their new network.
Ask your community to build their own new network.
Try and see what a city, state will pay for.
Federal gov networking?

That network can only get faster when people using a network pay for the costs of a new network.
Different parts of the USA can afford to pay for upgrades as they pay for their internet.
What is testing going to show?
Great internet. The network is in profit as the wealthy can pay.
Some network is slow and never had much investment as the people can't/won't pay more for internet services.
More federal NN rules and more "testing" is not the investment needed.

Want great internet?
1. Build it as community broadband and invite every ISP on.
2. Pay for it as a private network from one telco.
3. Pay more tax and have the federal gov network the entire USA.
Measuring an existing network is not going to build a needed new network.