Internet Providers Meet the Need for Speed

Digital Liberty ^ | 2011-08-08 | [Staff]

[92nina]

...A new FCC finding on broadband service sheds some light on why: Internet speeds generally reach within 20 percent of their advertised rate even during peak usage hours, with some providers far exceeding it.

Breaking service out by technology, cable providers deliver 93 percent of advertised download speeds on average – even during peak use evening hours – with companies that have implemented DOCSIS 3.0 faring better. And fiber service delivered a whopping 114% of advertised speeds with Verizon leading the pack. Unsurprisingly, upload speeds were even stronger, with throughput often exceeding advertised rates.

The report comes as a blow to the Commission’s prior claims, including a study last year that “actual download speeds experienced by U.S. consumers lag advertised speeds by roughly 50%.” Mention of this prior finding is notably absent in the FCC’s report. Equally absent is any mention of strong consumer satisfaction that renders these studies essentially pointless.

[92nina]

"Last year, the FCC noted that 80 percent of consumers did not know the speed of their broadband connection, but 91 percent were nonetheless satisfied with service..."

Take this article and others I found to the fight to the Libs on their own turf; put the Left on the defensive at at Digg and at Reddit and in Stumbleupon and Delicious

[Lees Swrd]

What good is speed when you have Gbyte limits on your usage. I pay for the best Dsl my provider has but I have 150 gb monthly limit on downloads I think a lot of ppl would be as well off with dialup. Pay for speed but your limited to dialup content!

[Melas]

Change providers. I have the above mentioned FIOS and I have no limits, and the service is always faster than claimed.

[Lees Swrd]

I would love to change but right now its the only game in town lol. They know this and it is the reason they pull this crap.

[krobara18]

There seems to be a bit of a falsehood in the text of that article - specifically the part where it says;

“Mention of this prior finding is notably absent in the FCC’s report.”

It actually does mention that the prior report was inaccurate and specifically states;

“For most participating broadband providers, actual download speeds are substantially closer to advertised speeds than was found in data from early 2009 and discussed in a subsequent FCC white paper, though performance can vary significantly by technology and specific provider”

I have to say, that even though my ISP came out close to the bootom in the metrics given, I’ve never had a real problem with them. I get pretty consistent speeds at all hours, and no caps at all.

[krobara18]

forgot to mention, my ISP is Cablevision.

[jeffc]

The only provider for me in this rural area is AT&T. The best they offer is 6M down/ 512k up. That's it. That's the best you can get in this part of town. Obviously, AT&T is still in the 20th century and think each household is just Grandma with one PC reading her email and surfing the web for grocery coupons.
We have four PC's and a Wii trying to access the internet on AT&T's tiny little BW that they call 6.0 EXTREME! Ha ha ha!

[KyGeezer]

My problem is not DSL speed and AT&T is gonna get dumped shortly. It is nearly impossible to watch Netflix streaming with the stream dying every 2-20 minutes. I know of 2 others in town who are having the same problem and I am very suspicious of AT&T. AT&T doesn’t like Netflix because they claim it uses 25% of their bandwidth. AT&T is getting away with metered service in CA.

After an AT&T service tech checked my line and found no problem, he suggested my old Westell modem might be the problem. I spent 2.5 hours on the phone with Actiontec support and we never did get the damn modem connected to DSL. Each time we tried AT&T wanted my birthdate or last 4 digits of my SS#. I had to answer 2 security questions instead. There is no way to add that info to my account. Can you say “halfassed company” boys and girls?

[givemELL]

“waiting for www.google.com: appears in my address chain window as I attempt to reach over half of websites I go to. This slows the uploading of the site by 40 seconds or more!!

Within all such google address linked websites, linking within the site also has the massive google DELAY going further into the site. Especially irritating is linking back out of the site...it is much faster to close my browser to resume surfing, hoping the new webiste of my choosing is not governed by....THE GREAT GOOGLE URL Address LINKAGE DELAY”. This frequently encountered delay is a real disservice to Internet users!!!

[Melas]

Ouch. I can see why you complain. I have 50/25. We tested it once, we can watch an extra-HD movie on HULU in one room, an HD movie from Netflix in another, be surfing the net and video chatting with the tablets all at the same time with no apparent slowdown.