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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.


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  • (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?

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