iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Golden, CO
kudos:2 Reviews:
 ·Comcast
| You're forgetting that if broadband is defined too highly, companies will simply call their HSI service something else ("high speed internet" for example) and go on with their day.
I'd like a 5 Mbps symmetric connection everywhere I am, but AT&T isn't going to give it to me. I'd much rather have a 3/768 connection OTOH than have a 5 Mbps symmetric tier that doesn't exist at my location, if you get what I'm getting at.
Does setting a low standard mean that companies will stick to that low standard to the exclusion of everything else? Absolutely not! If that was the case you'd see 768/200 internet everywhere and nothing much higher. In reality, a decent baseline provides a common enominator for a provider's "Economy" tier in most cases, with additional tiers building from there. For example, Verizon and Comcast have 1024/384 for their economy tier (higher than 768/200 by the way), yet both go up to 50 Mbps on downloads in their flagship areas (DOCSIS 3 for Comcast, FiOS for Verizon). Qwest's baseline DSL is now 1.5 Mbps down, 896k up (okay, not really, but about 86% of that). Their highest VDSL2 tier is 40/20.
One last thing: even now, calling something broadband isn't going to make companies rise to the occasion. AT&T DSL starts at 768/128, as does Time Warner Cable. CenturyTel has a 512k tier. WildBlue and HughesNet have starter tiers below 768/200... |
