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Fnord666 writes:

The FCC's yearly report of broadband deployment keeps some crucial definitions in place that some feared would be changed or eliminated to ease the responsibilities of internet service providers. The threat of a lowered speed standard and the merging of mobile and fixed broadband services will not be carried out, it seems.

Broadband will continue to be defined as a connection with speeds of 25 megabits down and 3 megabits up. Another proposed definition of 10 down and 1 up was decried by critics as unrealistic for several reasons; not only is it insufficient for many ordinary internet applications, but it would let providers off the hook, because they would be counted as having deployed broadband if it met this lowered standard.

Fortunately, that isn't the case, and the 25/3 standard remains in place.

The other worry was the potential decision to merge mobile with fixed broadband when measuring the quality of internet connections available to people throughout the country.

Had the two been merged, an area might have been considered well-served if it was, for example, in range of an LTE tower (giving decent mobile speeds) but only served by sub-1-megabit DSL. Since it was being considered that only one was required, that underserved area would be considered adequately connected.

But the FCC clearly saw the lack of logic in equating mobile connections and fixed broadband: they're used, tracked, billed and deployed very differently.

[...] The full draft report, when it becomes public, will no doubt contain more interesting information ripe for interpretation, and other commissioners may also weigh in on its successes and shortcomings. In the meantime, it's reassuring that the main worries leading up to it have been addressed.

Source: TechCrunch

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