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The part I don't agree with is paying for universal access, again. Those of us fortunate enough to have an ISP have been paying into the Federal Universal Servi

The part I don't agree with is paying for universal access, again. Those of us fortunate enough to have an ISP have been paying into the Federal Universal Service Fund for decades. Of course, that money went into the pockets and broadband is still not fully deployed in this century. I think every ISP which got FUSF money should deploy, now, as promised, with the money they've already been given, before we talk about giving them more. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Service_Fund#Controversy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Service_Fund#Controv...

GeekyBear 7y ago
I can remember back when telecommunications industry profit margins were strictly regulated by public service commissions. In return for the deregulation of the industry in the 90's, we were told that we were going to get upgraded to broadband access in everybody's home. It seems like we have already paid for universal broadband more than once.
- rayiner 7y ago
  > I can remember back when telecommunications industry profit margins were strictly regulated by public service commissions. Yes, and the industry stagnated for decades.
  - lotsofpulp 7y ago
    And it has stagnated again.
    - rayiner 7y ago
      Stagnated what alternate reality? https://www.vox.com/2018/12/12/18134899/internet-broafband-faster-ookla https://www.vox.com/2018/12/12/18134899/internet-broafband-f... > U.S. internet speeds rose nearly 40 percent this year https://nypost.com/2018/07/11/the-average-internet-speed-has-risen-23-in-a-year/ https://nypost.com/2018/07/11/the-average-internet-speed-has... > News was particularly good for the United States, which moved up from the 21st-fastest country in 2017 to the 20th-fastest country in 2018. That might not sound like much of an improvement, but it was achieved by increasing speeds from an average 20 Mbps to nearly 26 Mbps, a bigger increase than the average. (In 2019, the US jumped from 20th to 15th in the M-lab data, ahead of Germany, France, the UK, and Italy.) Over the decade or so Akamai published its results on broadband speeds (the last one being in 2017) the US moved from the 20s into the top 10. The idea that US broadband is slow or stagnant is just totally false, to the point where you have to wonder where it comes from.
      - lotsofpulp 7y ago
        Statistics about download bandwidth are garbage. Quality of the connection is what matters. Latency and upload are all severely lacking in US residential connections (and even business for the most part). And who knows what bullshit the ISPs use to advertise their speeds. I assume they’re taking a 1GB download line to 100 homes and then selling each one 100Mb or more, so in the evenings, it’s really somewhere above 10Mbps down continuous. And the upload is negligible, so negligible that you won’t even find Comcast or their ilk advertise its amount.
      - mnm1 7y ago
        Who gives a fuck about faster speeds when you're data capped? I'm capped at 1TB of data a month on a 250mbit/sec connection. I've actually gone over and even considered SLOWING down my connection. I definitely have no reason to upgrade to 1GBPS. My mom, who lives a kilometer away and has broadband choice is on 1TB with no caps and pays almost half of what I do. I have no choice whatsoever despite having 3 providers within 1km because only fucking Comcast has service here. Yeah, that's fucking stagnation: when people are considering LOWERING their broadband speeds because of the monopolies we've put in place just so Comcast can rake in even more money for their shitty, overpriced service. So what if the speeds exist if they're unusable?
rayiner 7y ago
You’re imagining a decades-long broadband deployment effort that never happened. The FUSF didn’t give money for broadband until 2012. Even today, CAF funding is small compared to the cost of deployment broadband.

GeekyBear 7y ago

I can remember back when telecommunications industry profit margins were strictly regulated by public service commissions. In return for the deregulation of the industry in the 90's, we were told that we were going to get upgraded to broadband access in everybody's home. It seems like we have already paid for universal broadband more than once.

rayiner 7y ago
> I can remember back when telecommunications industry profit margins were strictly regulated by public service commissions. Yes, and the industry stagnated for decades.
- lotsofpulp 7y ago
  And it has stagnated again.
  - rayiner 7y ago
    Stagnated what alternate reality? https://www.vox.com/2018/12/12/18134899/internet-broafband-faster-ookla https://www.vox.com/2018/12/12/18134899/internet-broafband-f... > U.S. internet speeds rose nearly 40 percent this year https://nypost.com/2018/07/11/the-average-internet-speed-has-risen-23-in-a-year/ https://nypost.com/2018/07/11/the-average-internet-speed-has... > News was particularly good for the United States, which moved up from the 21st-fastest country in 2017 to the 20th-fastest country in 2018. That might not sound like much of an improvement, but it was achieved by increasing speeds from an average 20 Mbps to nearly 26 Mbps, a bigger increase than the average. (In 2019, the US jumped from 20th to 15th in the M-lab data, ahead of Germany, France, the UK, and Italy.) Over the decade or so Akamai published its results on broadband speeds (the last one being in 2017) the US moved from the 20s into the top 10. The idea that US broadband is slow or stagnant is just totally false, to the point where you have to wonder where it comes from.
    - lotsofpulp 7y ago
      Statistics about download bandwidth are garbage. Quality of the connection is what matters. Latency and upload are all severely lacking in US residential connections (and even business for the most part). And who knows what bullshit the ISPs use to advertise their speeds. I assume they’re taking a 1GB download line to 100 homes and then selling each one 100Mb or more, so in the evenings, it’s really somewhere above 10Mbps down continuous. And the upload is negligible, so negligible that you won’t even find Comcast or their ilk advertise its amount.
    - mnm1 7y ago
      Who gives a fuck about faster speeds when you're data capped? I'm capped at 1TB of data a month on a 250mbit/sec connection. I've actually gone over and even considered SLOWING down my connection. I definitely have no reason to upgrade to 1GBPS. My mom, who lives a kilometer away and has broadband choice is on 1TB with no caps and pays almost half of what I do. I have no choice whatsoever despite having 3 providers within 1km because only fucking Comcast has service here. Yeah, that's fucking stagnation: when people are considering LOWERING their broadband speeds because of the monopolies we've put in place just so Comcast can rake in even more money for their shitty, overpriced service. So what if the speeds exist if they're unusable?

rayiner 7y ago

You’re imagining a decades-long broadband deployment effort that never happened. The FUSF didn’t give money for broadband until 2012. Even today, CAF funding is small compared to the cost of deployment broadband.