What’s the deal with Comcast, Verizon, and other ISPs petitioning the FCC to lower the definition of broadband? It’s all about money—broadband stimulus money—MG Siegler explains on G4’s Attack of the Show.
As the Obama administration looks to expand broadband access to rural and urban areas that are still under-served, the ISPs want to lower what constitutes broadband so that they can get some of the billions of dollars in stimulus money without shelling out as much to actually deliver the broadband access the stimulus package is designed to create.
Those phone and cable companies are tricky. Watch the video above.
He looks like Jimmy Neutron
ha.
is the golden gate real this time?
+1
I guess more people will have to give up on watching youtube and actually go outside and do something productive and healthy.
you guessed wrong – they’ll just have to sit inside for longer now
This is part of the whole Net Neutrality issue. Consumers do not understand and know how many of the services they use and depend on depend on broadband, the internet and fast delivery of information. More needs to be done to make the net neutrality issue better know/understood by consumers and to encourage more participation on their part.
That’s a good point. If they lower the definition enough, they won’t have to compete with VOIP or IPTV services built on top of their services.
If other services can’t function properly except for their own then they are creating a monopoly. Although it will be hard to get the telcos for monopoly because they will still be “allowing” for third party services to access their network. There will be more success on the unfair practices and fair market front. Although line/network access rights and costs have been disputed, for years, between telcos, the FCC and third party provider. It might be too late if the telcos are successful with this. I fear it might take years to undo what could have easily been prevented/regulated by the FCC, or higher government agencies.
The free market is nice, but it needs to be protected. Some times that is done through regulating parts of it. To keep the US competitive with other countries other, that the FCC, government bodies might need to become involved as well.
http://thetitan...c-well-sort-of/
yeah, read some of comcast, at&t and verizon’s statements to the FCC, they’re pretty hilarious. along the lines of, we’re not sure our customers actually need higher speeds because they don’t necessarily want things like VoIP and video. yeah…
I would be interested to know how many of the viewers of this video needed to actually buffer it? For me, i was able to click play – and then stream it all with no interruptions at all. I had maybe 2 or 3 seconds of loading time but that was fine. What about you?
They’re talking fractions of 1mbps to be classed as broadband? If it’s any lower than 2 then it’s disgraceful IMHO! I get frustrated with anything lower than 5 these days, especially as I’m often accessing from my laptop using wireless so i won’t get full speed anyway.
I’m perfectly happy (and i do) pay for a 24mb connection which usually gets about 10-15mb speed, and only 5-6mb upload.
At the office we are currently running on a fraction T1 connection. A connection that is shared with several other businesses on the floor upstairs in our building, yet I can usually watch a video like the one above without much delay. I have a personal preference to click Play, then immediately click Pause, let it load completely while I read other things, then come back to it, which usually isn’t very long.
However, one of our employees lives in rural Oklahoma where her only option is to use a satellite-based Internet connection. A few years back I’d read about how they’ve “made vast improvements” and how “satellite isn’t what it used to be!” Yet this employee has a slower, less reliable connection than the average analog dial-up user does (I know a few of those too, btw).
I, for one, find the need to get blanket coverage for cheap, fast, TRUE broadband connectivity across the country, if for no other reason than for people like those forced to use satellite and dial-up. I’m happy with my (roughly) 5Mb down/512kb up cable connection at home and would LOVE to have 5Mb both ways, but as MG pointed out, that seems unlikely and not all that necessary. If I had a vote in the matter, it would be to define broadband as a connection with *at the VERY least* 1Mb down/256kb up speeds.
It’s already happening. What AT&T calls broadband in California, is not the same as the “broardband” in places like rural North Carolina.
I went home recently and my parents AT&T broadband speed was barely 200Kbps, so bad that YouTube could not stream a 2 minute clip without buffering every 15 seconds.
Video iChat always timed out when they tried to connect with me in California, and now I know why.
Indeed, it appears that the current useage of the term “broadband” is any connection faster than dial-up. I don’t know about you, but calling a connection “fast” merely because it isn’t one of the slowest connections in the world is downright immoral and at best a lie.
MG makes some great points too bad that Attack of the Show sucks major ass.
You want to know what’s funny? Comcast owns G4.
Yep, the host Kevin clearly states that before the segment. It’s great that they dont mind them ripping the parent.
MG is awesome! High Five!
Roundhouse high five right back.
Dude that is the most epic high five I’ve ever heard of.
That high five is patented by Chuck Norris!
RT @justepourdireUrgent pour l’agence @pmemultimedia cherche développeur web CDD ou Freelance. Please RT #job #tagfrancais
you have a much less whiney, snively voice than i expected
mg always looks like an angry midget in screenshots.
MG,
Please drink a littre of Nespresso coffee before you face the camera. You always seem to look board and asleep.
HAHA MG’s face is permanently afflicted with the infamous Apple Fanboy Smug-Scowl. Exactly as I pictured him.
Comcast has 33 billion in debt, and 4 billion in cash.
AT&T has 76 billion in debt and 7 billion in cash.
Verizon has 65 billion in debt and 1 billion in cash.
Compare that to apple with $0 in debt and $24 billion in cash. http://finance....com/q/ks?s=AAPL
I know I am not a wall street genius and sometimes debt is a good thing for companies but the debt is outrageously high.
How much of that debt is due to acquisition of smaller regional ISPs?
Five minute interview that bored me shitless…
The only thing interesting was that tintin haircut…
+1 for the tintin check
it wasn’t that bad of an interview.
Less than 1 Mb per minute? Sounds like they want to eventually bring us back to the dialup days. It’s bad enough the high speed ISP companies are already playing gatekeeper with the websites as it is to make money. Do they really need to make the overall internet speed slower thus making the sites that don’t pay our ISP company to stay fast damn near impossible to get to unless you know how to get around it?
MG on TV!! Holler. It’s awesome. MG you may want to smile a little more. You seem a bit depressed about ISPs! Congrats with the coverage.
I am depressed about ISPs! If they bring me on to talk about something like shitmydadsays on Twitter, then I’ll smile
Can you post this video to YouTube? My home wi-fi connection is not as powerful as my iPhone 3G. Oh, the irony…;(
Solid points MG. Having G4 quote the folks at Free Press was a nice inclusion as well.
I know he made a comment about rural disparity, but I’m slightly more optimistic about rural broadband outside of legacy RBOC territories (i.e. the companies mentioned in this segment).
One of my projects for 2010 is to highlight the top startup ready small towns and municipalities across the US that offer better broadband options than dense metro markets. They exist. The small towns aren’t Silicon Valley, true… but even the best rivers are marked by their numerous tributaries.
A great idea Jay, be sure to let us know what you find.
MG’s incorrect re why the big telcos and cable companies want to define broadband at sub 1 MBs throughput. It’s not so they can qualify for stimulus funding — they opted not to apply for the biggest round of funding that closed in mid-August. Even if they had been interested, the minimum speed for stimulus projects was set at the FCC’s current definition of 768 Kbs down and 200 Kbs up.
See my take on this question at
http://eldotele...-sub-1-mbs.html
why is the picture that accompanies this post on the front page have MG looking so sad, and disinterested?
Oh brother. I don’t know which is more pathetic. Trying to spend a fortune to connect people who want to be remote or these greedy fools trying to grab other people’s money by lobbying for even more distortion.
If the ISP’s lower current customers’ broadband speed, they are just asking for a class-action lawsuit.
MG you look like a nerd on coke!
Umm . . . so the Telcos want someone else to be responsible for their failings? REALLY?
I’m shocked.
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MG you look like Boo Boo in the vid pic.