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posted by takyon on Wednesday June 06 2018, @07:20PM   Printer-friendly
from the snail-race dept.

The government has been told to "up its game" over plans to guarantee a minimum internet speed for all broadband users. Peers said the current Universal Service Obligation (USO), which will entitle consumers to a minimum internet speed of 10Mbps, was "unambitious".

But the government said the USO was a "safety net" and it had "much greater ambitions". "The USO has an important part to play in ensuring that no-one is left behind," it added.

Labour spokesman Lord Stevenson of Balmacara opened the debate by saying the House had previously asked for the USO to specify a download speed of 30Mbps, but the general election halted work on the issue. He said the current USO plans contradict other government initiatives. "Surely the architecture of the USO has to be consistent with the government's productivity plan, the industrial strategy and the national infrastructure plan."

"The argument is that without some ambition the USO itself may become a constraint on all these important challenges," he said.


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Arik on Wednesday June 06 2018, @08:07PM (3 children)

    by Arik (4543) on Wednesday June 06 2018, @08:07PM (#689517) Journal
    And this is what happens when people that don't understand the subject write the rules. I'll give them good intentions to some degree, there are solid reasons to want a metric, to want to quantify service level, but the download throughput measured from some arbitrary server is a nearly meaningless way to characterize the service level. What about some latency standards? What about stability/availability standards? How about measuring something that actually matters?
    --
    If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 06 2018, @08:24PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 06 2018, @08:24PM (#689530)

    At most, the Gov should be setting up the rules for the arbitration of resources such as easements, right-of-way, property rights, and networking contracts, so as to establish the framework of interaction between competing service providers.

    The Government has no business setting goals, let alone allocating resources. That is the role of the goddamn, motherfucking People; that is the role of society, not the role of this one particular organization of armed would-be overlords.

    Christ!

    When will you learn that nothing will get done when you believe that everything should be done by this one group of knuckle-draggers? Nothing gets done unless you actively participate in getting it done yourself; that means looking for solutions and paying for them on your own—not simply handing over an arbitrary and capricious lump-sum tithe to some nebulous, black-box, pandering organization of conmen. Fuck. FUCK!

    • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday June 06 2018, @08:46PM

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday June 06 2018, @08:46PM (#689540) Journal

      The Government has no business setting goals, let alone allocating resources.

      When the government needs that bandwidth to interact** with the citizens, it becomes a stakeholder with skin in the game. As such, it certainly can set goals.
      Here, TFS spells it loud (really? can't hear a dam'thing) and clear

      But the government said ... it had "much greater ambitions"

      ---

      **
      how do you think GCHQ can can get full video spying capability over a dialup speed connection?
      Do you think JTAC can order a physical connection upgrade on short notice without the targets noticing?
      Do you know how much bandwidth those CCTV cameras all over UK require to upload their footage on a central location for processing in realtime?

      (grin)

      --
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    • (Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Thursday June 07 2018, @03:43PM

      by PiMuNu (3823) on Thursday June 07 2018, @03:43PM (#689894)

      > That is the role of the goddamn, motherfucking People; that is the role of society, not the role of this one particular organization of armed would-be overlords.

      But I chose the government from the People. That's what I did when I voted.