Posted on 01/24/2016 3:27:36 AM PST by upchuck
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will vote next week on an annual report about the state of high-speed Internet deployment around the country, something that has become a magnet for debate.
A proposed draft of the congressionally mandated report finds that advanced telecommunications capability isn't being deployed in a "reasonable and timely fashion" to all Americans. According to a fact sheet released by the agency, 34 million Americans do not have access to wired internet service that meets the FCC's definition of broadband — download speeds of 25 Mbps and upload speeds of 3 Mbps.
The commission also found that the divide between rural and urban Americans when it comes to broadband access persists. Thirty-nine percent of rural residents don't have access to wired broadband, according to the report
"To maximize the benefits of broadband for the American people, we not only need to facilitate innovation in areas like public safety and civic engagement, but also to make sure all Americans have advanced communications capabilities," said commission Chairman Tom Wheeler in a blog post. "The Commission has a statutory mandate to assess and report annually on whether broadband is being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion."
But critics say the report isn't just a compendium of statistics, but a way for the FCC to expand its authority and place arbitrary standards on Internet service providers.
The commission is authorized to take steps to expand access when the annual report finds it lacking, which critics contend turns the report into a tool for amassing more authority.
The FCC sparked controversy when it raised the benchmark speeds for wired broadband to their current levels last year and forced Internet providers to rethink their offerings.
That decision seems certain to loom over the commission's discussion on Thursday about the latest iteration of the report.
"It's bad enough the FCC keeps moving the goal posts on their definition of broadband, apparently so they can continue to justify intervening in obviously competitive markets," said Jim Cicconi, AT&T senior executive vice president for external and legislative affairs, in a statement earlier this month." It's beginning to look like the FCC will define broadband whichever way maximizes its power under whichever section of the law they want to apply."
Some in Congress share the concerns of industry. In a letter sent this week to Wheeler, six Republican senators questioned the commission's decision to use a lower benchmark for a program to expand broadband access in rural communities. They fretted that the FCC might more-tightly regulate providers offering speeds higher than the current standard.
Other elements of the report could spark debate as well. The commission found, for example, that "advanced telecommunications capability" requires that customers be able to access both wired and wireless broadband internet.
Meredith Rose, staff attorney for the interest group Public Knowledge, said that the group supported the definition "because consumers use the two for different things, because there are certain limitations that are inherent in wireless broadband and mobile broadband technologies that just don't exist or don't exist in the same degree in fixed broadband."
Others disagree. Republican FCC Commissioner Michael O'Rielly said in a statement last year that "the idea that we should tie our section 706 report finding to the belief that consumers must have both [fixed and wireless broadband] is flawed and strains credibility" because speeds could increase substantially for mobile broadband in the coming years.
Also absent from the report is a standard definition for how fast mobile internet has to be to be considered broadband. Rose said that the process of establishing that benchmark will take some time, and is complicated by the fact that the speed of wireless internet varies based on more factors than with wired broadband.
"It actually literally changes with the phase of the moon in some cases," she said. "Because it's such a complex issue, if the commission decides to sit down and say, 'We're going to do a particular set of metrics for this,' it's going to be a long process. And because the mobile question has only really started to take center stage in the last couple of years, it just hasn't gotten to that stage yet."
Broadband in rural areas. A subject near and dear to my heart.
> Broadband in rural areas. A subject near and dear to my heart.
Me, too.
We get 1.5 Mb DSL, enough to watch youtube with stuttering.
Better than dialup by a factor of ten, but still very slow for 2016.
The parasites want thier vig and that is it!
And the amount of data is limiting if you’re not a billionaire.
Ok so 39% of rural residents don’t have access to WIRED broadband.
Wireless broadband can be pretty fast.
And how many people fit into their definition of rural?
We live in rural (by most standards) north Georgia and have LTE, uverse and Xfinity service options. While we don’t live in the deep poplar woods, very few Georgians do. They could do HughesNet if they needed to.
This stinks of the gummint raising a lot of tax money to serve a small need.
I agree with all of you. I’m in rural Tennessee and Hughes.net satellite is the only thing we can get. It’s awful but better than dial-up. I would love to have more choices for something that is reliable. Hughes has daily download limits and if you go over they shut you off or you can purchase more data. You have a free period from 2am to 7am but that means getting up in the middle of the night for large updates.
They are a decade behind the curve in focusing on wired broadband. The economic landlords of broadband today are the cell phone data providers.
How did we get so there is phone service in rural areas? Did the government force the phone industry to lay lines to rural areas?
We live 3 miles from DSL capability. Dish is the only option, and data is very expensive. Netflix, for instance, will never be an option for us if we want to be able to eat or drive a car.
Service is patchy. For instance, I cannot download Windows 10 because the internet is never connected long enough in one shot for it to download without disconnecting. I think I’ve tried 7 or 8 times.
Sometimes the weather makes trouble, which has created some problems for my daughter who needs internet for homework.
High speed Internet is a Human Right now.
Hold onto your wallets, the taxman is coming.
And our phone service isn’t great either. Often the landline just says, “Your call did not go through. Try again”. And we live in a valley so cellphone calls drop a lot. If we had to dial 911 for an emergency it would be iffy as to whether the call would ever get there.
Is that a human right, to be able to access 911? I don’t know; maybe somebody can tell me.
Just as well :)
FCC likes being kingmaker with its auctions and ability to jerk companies around. Thankfully they never use their power to advance the political agenda of the President who appoints them. /s
“A Colorado-based digital phone and broadband Internet provider is expanding its service near two Nebraska towns — and receiving federal funds to do so — despite a state regulator’s concerns that it can’t guarantee callers will have 911 access when disaster strikes.
Rise Broadband, the new consumer brand operated by Colorado-based JAB Broadband and its subsidiaries, already serves customers in 15 states, including parts of Nebraska.
Rise announced Tuesday that it is receiving $16.9 million in federal funding to expand its rural broadband and digital voice services in parts of five states, including rural Columbus and St. Libory in Nebraska..........”
There’s a one word solution for those not getting the local services they desire:
Move!
If you had crappy neighbors, would that justify taxing me to rent you a UHaul truck? Would it justify the gubermint regulating truck rentals?
Remember 20 years ago when the feds decided they needed to control cable TV rates? ATM fees?
Look up the story of rural electrification. That will give you a hint of the battles, back room deals, and corruption that this broadband fight will have.
When I got internet cable in late 2002, it was 1 Mbps.
Within a short time, they upped the speed to 4 Mbps.
A few years later, it was upped to 12 Mbps for the ‘preferred’ tier. They also added a couple of faster and slower tiers.
Next increase a few years later was to 18 Mbps for ‘preferred’. At this level, one had to upgrade the modem to benefit from the speed. The older DOCSIS 2 was too slow. I upgraded to the DOCSIS 3.0.
Then the speed increased to 20 Mpbs.
About 18 months ago now, they increased again to 50 Mpbs for the ‘preferred’ tier.
Of course, about 3-6 months prior to each speed increase, they also upped the tier price $3 to $5 dollars.
In 2003, the ‘preferred’ tier was about $37/month. Next month (new price increase), it will be about $70/month.
The problem for my small town (14k pop) is the only competitors are slow/expensive DSL (about 10 Mbps max) or 3g Mobile or satellite.
Cable, for the price vs service is still the best value.
My download/upload increased from 250 Gb/month to 350 Gb/month. I can stream 3 sports events and a Netflix/Amazon Prime movie without any buffering. All that barely moves the content meter. I occasionally reach 80 to 100 Gb downloads/uploads per month.
Yep. That's about the size of it. It is socialist politics.
In most cases, we don’t need the fedgov involved. What is needed is state and local governments which tell the cable and phone providers, “You want a franchise here? Then you have to connect -everyone- in our jurisdiction who wants your broadband. No exceptions.:
Power grabs are what politicians and bureaucrats do.
Thanks, corrupt county commission!
So we are stuck with DSL at 5mbps which is at least cheap ($20 month) and has no caps.
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