FCC proposes to increase minimum broadband speeds to 100 Mbps • Hacker News Board

Re: FCC proposes to increase minimum broadband speeds to 100 Mbps

#91

Post by michaelmrose » Sat, Jul 16, 2022, 1:06 AM UTC

hamandcheese wrote: post #14

ZoomerCretin wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I would much rather have the govt provide incentives for there to be more than one provider. In the UK, ISPs are forced to lease their last-mile lines to anyone who wants to provide internet service. This results in a decent amount of competition.

If, say, Comcast had to lease their last mile, why wouldn’t they charge an arm and a leg to whoever was trying to sell internet? I don’t see how this would bring prices down meaningfully.

You can practically regulate how this works by determining cost and markup. I mean most places have one power company for example and they aren't simply allowed to charge you whatever they please.

In fact this was done years ago successfully. It was discontinued so cable companies could make greater profit.

Re: FCC proposes to increase minimum broadband speeds to 100 Mbps

#92

Post by Overtonwindow » Sat, Jul 16, 2022, 1:07 AM UTC

There needs to be more competition. Universal pole access should be a thing.

Re: FCC proposes to increase minimum broadband speeds to 100 Mbps

#93

Post by prirun » Sat, Jul 16, 2022, 1:11 AM UTC

IMO, the FCC should:

1. make payments to local governments in exchange for monopoly access, illegal.

2. strike down laws that prohibit local governments from providing internet service.

3. stop forcing these speed minimums that also come with price minimums not everyone wants.

Re: FCC proposes to increase minimum broadband speeds to 100 Mbps

#94

Post by 2OEH8eoCRo0 » Sat, Jul 16, 2022, 1:13 AM UTC

superkuh wrote: post #26

The problem, in the USA for most people, is Comcast. Downspeed hardly matters. It's been plenty for decades. Upload speed has stagnated. I uploaded as fast in 2003 as I do now in 2022. And as others have said, it's not so much about 1 fast provider as many providers and choice. In my comcast monopoly my plan started at $60/mo in 2011 and without any changes on my end and no change in my upload speed that price has in…

The problem is lack of competition. My father gets outstanding service at his house in RI because he can switch to about 3 providers. When he threatens to cancel they know he means it. I get fisted by Cuckcast up here in NH because they're the only choice.

Re: FCC proposes to increase minimum broadband speeds to 100 Mbps

#95

Post by rgbrenner » Sat, Jul 16, 2022, 1:15 AM UTC

gnicholas wrote: post #4

I'd rather have two providers that offers 25Mbps than one that offers 100Mbps. I don't need 100, or even 50. But Comcast has been jacking up their prices, along with increasing the minimum speed available, for years. They respond to government regulations like these. I'm now paying 2x what I used to (from $25 to $50/mo), and getting 2x the speed. But I don't want to be forced to buy 2x the speed (or even faster, as t…

Would two providers solve anything? There are 3 cell phone companies and they’re all virtually the same price.

Re: FCC proposes to increase minimum broadband speeds to 100 Mbps

#96

Post by Wowfunhappy » Sat, Jul 16, 2022, 1:15 AM UTC

vitus wrote: post #88

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the unlikely scenario where all four children are simultaneously using the internet full-throttle, they're still each getting 5 Mbps down, which Netflix says is sufficient for 1080p video. Upload speeds could start to be a problem though, and IMO that's a much more significant issue. > 20Mbps is also entirely noticeable for bulk downloads It is, but downloading Steam games quickly is not a critical need. It can be…

5 Mbps down is certainly more than adequate for a single 1080p stream that's been compressed ahead of time. When you have to stitch together multiple real-time streams as in a classroom environment, then the actual numbers can vary significantly. If your kids are forced into remote learning, and you're working from home, then we might be talking more like 3-4 Mbps per person if your network is split 5 or 6 ways. And…

> If you're paying for 20Mbps under the assumption that you'll only need 18Mbps at peak, you'll be frustrated when you end up only getting 15Mbps and all the video calls stutter / cut out intermittently.

But isn't that the real problem here? Companies shouldn't be able to advertise a 20 mbps connection if they aren't able to maintain that speed. Dropping one megabit on occasion may be reasonable, but five is at the point where you should be compensating customers for the outage.

My thesis is not "everything is fine and everyone should shut up and accept what they've got." My thesis is that we're focusing on entirely the wrong thing.

Re: FCC proposes to increase minimum broadband speeds to 100 Mbps

#97

Post by imoverclocked » Sat, Jul 16, 2022, 1:17 AM UTC

superkuh wrote: post #26

The problem, in the USA for most people, is Comcast. Downspeed hardly matters. It's been plenty for decades. Upload speed has stagnated. I uploaded as fast in 2003 as I do now in 2022. And as others have said, it's not so much about 1 fast provider as many providers and choice. In my comcast monopoly my plan started at $60/mo in 2011 and without any changes on my end and no change in my upload speed that price has in…

> But I don't have a choice. It doesn't matter how good, or bad, Comcast is. They're the only game in town.

To extend that, Comcast is on my street but refuses to run a line up to my house because they consider it to be too cost prohibitive. At the same time, they block anyone else from making money in my region. I'm stuck with whatever cell signal I can acquire and that is as good as 5mbps during the day and might double that at night on a clear evening.

Re: FCC proposes to increase minimum broadband speeds to 100 Mbps

#98

Post by namecheapTA » Sat, Jul 16, 2022, 1:26 AM UTC

I got tired of my previous internet provider. I noticed Xfinity wifi was available at my house. I signed up.

They asked me to either rent a router or bring my own and do self install. I have done neither.

I use the Xfinity wifi. For over a year now. No complaints.

Wiring every house in a dense area seems weird when you can just go wireless.

Re: FCC proposes to increase minimum broadband speeds to 100 Mbps

#99

Post by refulgentis » Sat, Jul 16, 2022, 1:27 AM UTC

bufferoverflow wrote: post #18

happyopossum wrote: post #2

100/20 is definitely an improvement, and is probably a reasonable minimum bar to set. I'm sure most of us have much higher speed connections, but I know I rarely take my 1Gb pipe over 10% of that... Heck, 2 TVs streaming 4k during a zoom call would be fine on 100Mb...

> 4k during a zoom call would be fine on 100Mb Not sure what bit rate TV is at, but one 4K YouTube stream can take up to 68Mbps, and 8K even more. We're on 400Mbps, and even then I manage to block internet for others when I download a large file at full speed.

I'm not sure this is accurate, maybe a sufficiently cherry-picked small # of frames in a VBR recording?

It, at the very least, hides more than it illuminates in that 68Mbps is an order of magnitude higher than an average 4K video's bitrate over it's duration

Re: FCC proposes to increase minimum broadband speeds to 100 Mbps

#100

Post by amalcon » Sat, Jul 16, 2022, 1:27 AM UTC

prirun wrote: post #93

IMO, the FCC should: 1. make payments to local governments in exchange for monopoly access, illegal. 2. strike down laws that prohibit local governments from providing internet service. 3. stop forcing these speed minimums that also come with price minimums not everyone wants.

It's unlikely that the FCC has the power to do either 1 or 2.