FCC redefines broadband, 14-24 million Americans still without access

By on Jul 23, 2010 at 12:17 AM
Internet July 23, 2010

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In a press release dated July 20th, the FCC announced that between 14 and 24 million Americans are still without access to broadband internet, and that the “immediate prospects for deployment to them are bleak.” The report also goes on to define “broadband” as a connection that provides a 4 Mbps downlink and 1 Mbps uplink. Prior to the report, broadband was defined as providing a 768 Kbps downlink connection. The report goes on: “In an era when broadband has become essential for U.S. jobs, economic growth, global competitiveness, and democratic engagement, millions of Americans live in areas without broadband. Many of these Americans are poor or live in rural areas that will remain unserved without reform of the universal service program and other changes to U.S. broadband policy that spur investment in broadband networks by lowering the cost of deployment.” What do you think? Is 4 Mbps an acceptable speed? Should the government push telecoms to provide broadband access to more rural areas?

Thanks, Henry!

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  • MikeD

    Its about damn time they redefine it.

    Walt Mossberg has been critical of the term Broadband in the US.

  • MikeE

    Great job Time Warner. Road runner turbo is 0.5Mbits up. What a fucking joke.

  • Mohammad

    Wow. I only have verizon $3mb/s dsl. I guess I’m one of those 14 millions. I think 4mb/s is putting the bar too high. Why jump from 768k/s to 4mb/s? 2mb/s is enough for most functions beside movies/videos.

    • Luke

      We are a superpower and somehow ranked 28th in the world in terms of internet speeds thats why. If they can get away with spending as little as possible on infrastructure and charging as much as possible they will. Usually free market competition is the solution but most of these companies like comcast and time warner have regional monopolies that hinder competition and encourage these practices.

  • Sonar_Chris

    So let me see if I understand this, broadband companies aren’t supplying to areas where they probably wouldn’t get paid or its not economical to provide, so the government my force them to. The notion that everyone deserves things like this has gone entirely to far.

    • Jon W

      I live in a rural area and I don’t think you get the picture at all. My two choices were satellite for internet or Verizon mobile broadband. With Verizon, which I had for two years, I was able to work from home, which I do since it’s a long drive for me to go to work every day. However, I could NEVER watch a movie, download much of anything, or most things people do on their PC’s everyday b/c I’d go over the cap. I had satellite for 5 years prior which I couldn’t even work remotely on. I pay the same thing if not more than you, who lives in a more suburban/urban area. How does that makes sense??

      • After Forever

        Here is an ideal…. MOVE!
        Why in Gods name should I pay more in taxes so you can have access to the internet? It is now an entitlement that every American have internet.

      • Marc

        Well I live in a rural area too and my only choice is Comcast. I understand that is my decision to live there but you can say that about anything that is government sponsored. For example, I live in the midwest and I am tired of having my federal tax dollars spent on hurricane cleanup in the Gulf of Mexico and forest fires in the west (the US Park firefighters and planes). Why don’t those people move out of the constant national disaster area?

      • Josh

        I completely agree with you, some people can’t move for one reason or another.

      • Jameson

        Those people should move out of constant dangerous areas! Look at New Orleans, for example. Why on God’s green earth should we be putting federal dollars in there when it is inevitably going to happen again? If downloading movies on the internet is so important, move! If you don’t want to get flooded or burned down, move! I don’t want to pay for your stupidity/laziness.

      • Sonar_Chris

        @ Joh W, Ok, so you live in a rural area, so what. Internet access is not a right, just like driving, it is a privilge. For the guy who said that some people can’t afford to move, well tough shit. Next thing you know the government and people like you will say that everyone should have a cell phone and will use tax dollars to pay for service for low income and homeless people because they should have access to communications. Get real, stop the fleecing of America.

      • xinjii

        No dvds? God forbid that you can’t watch movies over the internet. I think the government should fix that gross violation of your basic human rights.

    • Fattychance

      That’s just ignorant.

      Do you want everyone who works on a farm to just shutter up and move to the city?

      Where will you get your food from?

      When you drive across this vast country how about we just have large swaths with no Internet access, no phone, no gas, nothing…see how that works for you.

      Forget seeing the country…just live in your mindless bubble.

      They make obscene profits in the cities and they aren’t about to charge you less than what they can get away with. You aren’t paying more because of rural users…you are paying more because they are greeeeeedy.

  • LeQuinte

    If that’s the case, Century Link isn’t providing broadband in my area. I had the 3.0Mb/640Kb upload plan. Most of the time, I was getting 2-2.8 down and arounr 500 up. Out of curiosity, my area got downgraded (in offerings) to 1.5M/500k… no thanks. I switched to Comcast back in on a 6 month promo where I get 16/2 for $35. It will be $58 after that :( But I am definitely getting the speeds most of the time…

  • Enlightened

    I think the point of this is to define what’s available to people, not require that you pay for that level of service. If you don’t want to pay for more than 2 Mbps down that’s fine, but with the advances in technology today 4 Mbps minimum available throughout the country is very reasonable. And if government funding can be used to lower the cost of deployment to the underserved areas telecom companies should definitely be pushed to provide more widespread coverage.

  • asher

    I have cableone and have 10mbps down and 1mbps up and usually get to about 75% of those speeds. 53 bucks a month.

    Posted from BGR Mobile (iPhone).

  • Cha_pimp

    At&t Uverse is pretty good where its available.. 12 down 2 up for 35 or so bucks a month

  • Lebron the quitter

    article by Munchbach…..now that is funny, Munchbach!!!!!

    • Mr. Bill

      New to the internet?

  • BxK

    //rant starts here

    Ok so let me get this straight. They want faster data speeds with data caps ? Where does this remotely make since?! I don’t get it I wish i had 4 down. Dsl shit I’m lucky if I get 1.2 down and 0.2 up. Rediculous. For the same price cable I can get 10x that but the damncable goes out everyday litterally everyday. If they are going to force this why not force no data caps that’s when I’ll be happy!

    //Rant over

  • bobby

    Jon, in that case next time you move you should look into what kind of broadband service is in that area. Its not my fault that you live in an area that where it is unprofitable to provide faster service and I should not be paying taxes to subsidize your internet because you chose to live in the boonies.

  • bobby

    Jon, in that case next time you move you should look into what kind of broadband service is in your area. Its not my fault that you live in an area that where it is unprofitable to provide faster service and I should not be paying taxes to subsidize your internet because you chose to live in the boonies.

  • JL

    People complain about their taxes etc “going up” to subsidize broadband communications access for those who do not have it – Why aren’t you complaining about the big tax breaks corporations get and your taxes are still supposedly higher? And yes, for something that the government considers important (like broadband access) everyone should have access to it – I guess some around here do believe in exclusion with regards to their fellow Americans – truly a shame..

  • burnet

    the government subsidizes many other optional things like roads and higer education. I dont think them subsidizing internet is any different.

  • sam

    Its funny i work for a telecom company and every rural customer complains about their internet speed but they never push the govt to provide municipal water or sewer. In fact most don’t go on the municipal facilities when they become available. 4 miles of cable to provide 4 mbs or better will take 40 years to pay for itself

    • piper

      Why would I want to? I have Free Well water and a septic field. My Geothermal AC bills are $25/month heating is $60/month.
      I’m with Jon W, I HAVE to live/work out here with a lousy USB card for internet. I would love to watch Netflix on Roku, but that’s not happening on a 5GB Card.

      Here’s an idea – Based on those who CANNOT get DSL or cable how about a unlimited tier

      And to those that say “move” well that is just retarded – yes I went there and you should get out of the basement sometime.

      • desmalta

        Maybe you should take the money you save on all your country freebies and pay what it will cost for you to get high speed internet. There is a huge cost for the infrastructure, if you want it, pay for it. Maybe the government can subsidize your gasoline bill, too. You live in the middle of nowhere. It costs more for services to be brought there. You pay for those at higher costs or you don’t get them. Shut up.

      • NOnE

        win^^

  • iFlossâ„¢

    How are we supposed to catch up if we have standards of 4mbps =____=

    They should redefine that AGAIN to 10mbps by 5mbps.

    Japan’s index is 17mbps while ours is 9mbps (close to 10) if i’m not mistaken. It’s only the internet though right??? Its not like it helps increase our productivity by 200% just by an extra 6mbps

  • dave

    I just moved from a small town where I got broadband closer to a city and now all I can get it mobile broadband how does this make since?? I have contacted every ISP in my area and none of them have plans to expand to my area and I’m only 2 miles from where they do have internet and there are plenty of people that would get it if they offered it

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