| Why define broadband? Why do they need to define broadband? Defining broadband doesn't do anything - it just gives the carriers, gov't, and lobbists specific (easy) numbers to throw around in their sound bites. I can hear it now "87% of the country has broadband" or "27% of this county doesn't have broadband." It's just silly.
What they should be focusing on is getting an accurate mapping of speeds per carrier per home. No more of this "up to 5mbps" crap from carriers. It should be fairly easy (expensive - but technologically simple) to set up an online map (maybe a partnership with google maps?) that shows carrier availability in your area, max speeds per carrier, and actual speeds to individual homes. How much easier would it be for the consumer if they could log on and see that, in the area they are moving to, the AT&T DSL of 3 of your neigbors runs at 4.68mbps down/708kbps up and that 8 other neighbors with Verizon FIOS run at 14.89kbps down and 2.58mbps up?
I honestly don't care what my government determines is acceptable as broadband. What's one man's broadband is another man's dial-up - it all depends on usage. Until the gov't wises up and starts to put real data in the hands of actual consumers we're all still going to be bowing at the feet of our local telecoms. |
