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- cross-posted to:
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Analysis of broadband affordability deemed “extraneous” by FCC chair.
The Federal Communications Commission is ditching Biden-era standards for measuring progress toward the goal of universal broadband deployment.
The changes will make it easier for the FCC to give the broadband industry a passing grade in an annual progress report. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s proposal would give the industry a thumbs-up even if it falls short of 100 percent deployment, eliminate a long-term goal of gigabit broadband speeds, and abandon a new effort to track the affordability of broadband.
Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act requires the FCC to determine whether broadband is being deployed “on a reasonable and timely basis” to all Americans. If the answer is no, the US law says the FCC must “take immediate action to accelerate deployment of such capability by removing barriers to infrastructure investment and by promoting competition in the telecommunications market.”
As someone who has had download speeds above gigabit all throughout the 2020s so far (and for under $60/mo as well), it blows my mind that there are parts of the country that still don’t even have 10% of that.
Like what I’m saying is that even cell phone towers can do multi-gig speeds these days FFS, so there’s no excuse even for rural areas to not have at least a couple of reliable gigabit options available, no matter where you are in the country.
If they can figure out reliable 5G in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, surely they can install an antenna on grandpa’s farm and beam a 2.5Gbps signal directly to his rooftop. I mean my 1400Mbps line comes in through a 5G gateway sitting in my kitchen window sill and it has been just as reliable as fiber for me, even with a giant pine tree in the way blocking line-of-sight to the tower. ISPs need to stop making up excuses, and actually start investing those outrageous monthly fees they collect into better infrastructure.
What ISP do you have, $50 sounds great. My gb never goes beyond 450mbps but it definitely drops to sub 10mbps sometimes. And that’s $70/month. Which I thought I was doing fairly well after coming off how bad Spectrum was for me previously. (Mine currently is through the local power/water company)
Verizon 5G Home Internet. The one with the big box that goes in your window, not the one with the smaller box that can go anywhere in the house.
This really depends on where you live. All broadnands are micro monopolies. I wish we’d pull a EU and split infrastructure and service. We’d get better speeds and prices everywhere