Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Saturday January 23 2016, @08:32AM   Printer-friendly
from the what-speed-is-their-connection? dept.

In an absolute surprise to nobody, six Senators came out today saying something along the lines of 5Mbps should be enough for anybody:

Today's letter from Steve Daines (R-MT), Roger Wicker (R-MS), Roy Blunt (R-MO), Deb Fischer (R-NE), Ron Johnson (R-WI), and Cory Gardner (R-CO) is almost hilarious in its deep misunderstanding about how people actually use the internet and what they need. The senators say that the 25Mbps standard is unnecessary because, for example, Netflix only recommends a download speed of 5Mbps for HD video, and Amazon only 3.5Mbps. (The recommendation for 4K video from Netflix is actually 25Mbps, but we suppose lawmakers agree that nobody should enjoy Ultra HD content yet.)

The senators say they are "concerned that this arbitrary 25/3 Mbps benchmark fails to accurately capture what most Americans consider broadband," and that "the use of this benchmark discourages broadband providers from offering speeds at or above the benchmark." If these sound exactly like talking points from Verizon, Comcast, and other major ISPs, that's because they are: Comcast loves to tell Americans that they don't need faster internet, and ISPs join together every time they are about to be regulated to say that regulations will chill their future investments. Ars Technica reported that Republicans in Congress echoed ISP spin about network investments in hearings over net neutrality, but then just three months after the net neutrality rules took effect last year, Comcast posted earnings that showed its capital expenditures actually increased by 11 percent. So the idea that creating a standard will discourage ISPs from meeting that standard is total nonsense.

What about you lot? Does your connection meet the new broadband definition? Mine matches the download side but fails by two thirds on the upload side.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by requerdanos on Saturday January 23 2016, @12:43PM

    by requerdanos (5997) Subscriber Badge on Saturday January 23 2016, @12:43PM (#293600) Journal

    My ISP, a local telephone membership corporation [atmc.com] owned by its customers, offers 6Mb/s DSL, and cable internet from 15Mb/s - 100Mb/s. If you live in the right neighborhood, they have gigabit fiber, 1000Mb/s down - 100Mb/s up, for $115/month.

    I am currently on an introductory offer (~$55 instead of ~$70/month) of their 30Mb/s down - 5Mb/s up plan, and I frankly love love love it. When my girlfriend and her daughter are over, we can all comfortably stream separate video, even while downloading other things--and I have found that with that download speed I have been able to try a lot more operating systems/distros because it takes only a few minutes to download an install cd (or dvd!). Netinstalls also go really quickly.

    But is 30Mb/s fast enough? Ha ha, no.... When the trial rate is up in a few months, I plan to go ahead and get the 100Mb/s down - 20Mb/s up, which is the fastest speed available in my area. If and when the fiber hits my apartment complex, I am pretty sure I will get the 1000Mb/s.

    But even the 30Mb/s kind of still boggles my mind; before this new cable modem was installed, I had never had access to internet even half this fast. Now having tried it, I wouldn't want to go any slower than this for sure.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +2  
       Interesting=2, Total=2
    Extra 'Interesting' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   4  
  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Francis on Saturday January 23 2016, @03:01PM

    by Francis (5544) on Saturday January 23 2016, @03:01PM (#293622)

    30mbps is plenty fast for most people right now. The issue with their assessment is that it assumes that people won't need more bandwidth in the future. 25 years ago 30mbps would have allowed you to fill your entire HDD several times over in a matter of a seconds. Now we expect to be able to be able to stream videos that would have filled a 48MB drive and do so fast enough to have an enjoyable viewing experience.

    But, more than that, right now there's a huge problem of latency and scripts that either intentionally or accidentally delay the site from loading. Last summer I moved up from 7mbps to 40mbps and things don't load much quicker than they did previously. Sure, larger downloads download faster, but most of the surfing is just as slow as it used to be due to the incompetent web designs that are all the rage. Why does any site need dozens of scripts from random 3rd parties to function?