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FCC launches inquiry to increase minimum broadband speed [pdf]

docs.fcc.gov

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Re: FCC launches inquiry to increase minimum broadband speed [pdf]

#121

Post by endisneigh »

kvakvs wrote: post #17
endisneigh wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why shouldn’t there be a cap? Bandwidth isn’t free. It’s sad seeing people on a forum called hacker news having no idea how networking infrastructure works.

Cost of the traffic is: hardware (staggered cost covered over many months), and running costs (subscription to higher tier internet carriers, electricity, rent of the premises, salaries etc). Most of this is covered by the monthly fees, to have a profitable business one must have those costs covered as a minimum. None of the above affects how much internet data goes through, zero or maxed out capacity, cost is the sa…

This is patently false. Given optics can only support so many people at a given latency and bandwidth.

Re: FCC launches inquiry to increase minimum broadband speed [pdf]

#122

Post by sschueller »

More effective would be to require all connections to be opened to any other provider (for a fee of course also defined by the FCC).

Additionally there should be a over subscriber limit defined based on used capacity based on something like a 95th percentile calculation.

It doesn't help if you have a gigabit internet connection when it's unusable because of the lack of backend capacity.

Although if you had an open infrastructure the free market every one loves so much would kill bad service.

Re: FCC launches inquiry to increase minimum broadband speed [pdf]

#123

Post by RajT88 »

godzillabrennus wrote: post #69
AussieWog93 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's what gets me. Is there a technical reason why symmetrical connections would be more expensive than asymm?

My assumption is torrents are a threat to streaming services already and potentially a death blow if uplink speeds are too fast.

When I worked at a small ISP, this was indeed a threat. We offered symmetric speeds though and dealt with it via traffic shaping.

It really was just the odd teenager torrenting here and there.

Re: FCC launches inquiry to increase minimum broadband speed [pdf]

#124

Post by dpkirchner »

dylan604 wrote: post #118
dpkirchner wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's pitch symmetrical, let them counter with 20Mbit up per 100Mbit down, and call it a victory.

i think you're about 1/5 the minimum speeds we should be countering. 100mbps up, 1000mbps down

I just noticed the document does prescribe 100 down, 20 up. Mb.

And yeah, I could go for a gigabit minimum.

Re: FCC launches inquiry to increase minimum broadband speed [pdf]

#125

Post by dylan604 »

andersa wrote: post #91
paxys wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The technical reason is that by restricting upload speed they can offer a higher download speed, and that is what most users care about.

This is nonsense. Fiber cables are always capable of the same speed in both directions at once. The actual reason is so they can sell you an overpriced "business" plan if you need upload speeds from the current decade.

No, I think you might be confused. We all know that the fiber for the download link is at least 10x wider than the fiber for the upload channel. There's just no way to squeeze the same number of bits through the smaller "tube" /s

Re: FCC launches inquiry to increase minimum broadband speed [pdf]

#126

Post by paxys »

wing-_-nuts wrote: post #109
paxys wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The technical reason is that by restricting upload speed they can offer a higher download speed, and that is what most users care about.

I find that reasoning suspicious. Ever notice how most of the muni and coop internet providers offer a symmetrical speed while att and comcast don't? My bet is that there's no real technical limitation, it's simply price segmentation.

Fiber is symmetric, coax is not. This isn't some grand conspiracy, just how the underlying engineering works.

Re: FCC launches inquiry to increase minimum broadband speed [pdf]

#127

Post by gtvwill »

kulahan wrote: post #90
notyourwork wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And that speed should be symmetrical. We are continuing to push the boundaries are content going out.

A huge portion of people don't need a massive upstream. This sounds more expensive for basically no benefit (for most)

Bs. Not sure why you think it but every system has cloud backup these days, folks regularly broadcast multiple video streams at once from home and a plethora of other activities that require upload.

Please stop spreading such misinformation as its an unnecessary expense. It costs zero dollars for upload stop cucking it because you don't understand its use.

Re: FCC launches inquiry to increase minimum broadband speed [pdf]

#128

Post by elzbardico »

jjcm wrote: post #108
andrewmunsell wrote: post #3

This is nice, but with increased speed, they should also require ISPs do not impose a data cap to be considered broadband.

I'm actually on the opposite side of this. I wish there were more metered options available for data, especially for wireless options. I'd love to see an offering that has a low monthly connection fee (i.e. $1-5), along with a sensible price per GB option (i.e. double the cost of transit so there are decent margins on this, but isn't something crazy like $10/gb). Assuming that for most consumers the end price average…

Yes, metering is the rational thing to do.

But caps are different and don't work the same.

Re: FCC launches inquiry to increase minimum broadband speed [pdf]

#129

Post by hhh »

godzillabrennus wrote: post #69
AussieWog93 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's what gets me. Is there a technical reason why symmetrical connections would be more expensive than asymm?

My assumption is torrents are a threat to streaming services already and potentially a death blow if uplink speeds are too fast.

why would uplink speeds being fast contribute to torrents outside of the first few seeders?... you would just have more peers contributing smaller amounts

Re: FCC launches inquiry to increase minimum broadband speed [pdf]

#130

Post by wmf »

wing-_-nuts wrote: post #109
paxys wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The technical reason is that by restricting upload speed they can offer a higher download speed, and that is what most users care about.

I find that reasoning suspicious. Ever notice how most of the muni and coop internet providers offer a symmetrical speed while att and comcast don't? My bet is that there's no real technical limitation, it's simply price segmentation.

There is a technical limitation on cable and DSL networks but not on other techs like fiber or wireless.
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