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You can now curse your ISP with even more conviction. A task force set up by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has revealed that actual broadband speeds are slower than promised speeds by as much as 50% to 80%.
Although the task force didn’t name any decent ways to express dissent, it is suggested that indignant consumers learn the art of protesting from the true masters of the art: the Palestinians, who have pioneered some of the most effective and economical techniques, including stone pelting and the fabled catch-and-hurl-back-teargas-grenade technique.
Coming back to the subject of broadband access, the task force is busy preparing a report on ways to enhance broadband penetration in rural and urban areas. The panel will submit its final report to Congress in February. It said in an interim report that anywhere between $20 and $350 billion might be needed for installing necessary wireless and landline infrastructure. Its estimate depends on the internet speed.
“This speaks to consumer empowerment. And if you are advertising one speed but delivering another, that takes power away. Consumers can't make accurate decisions based on quality of service from one provider off another,” Joel Kelsey, an analyst at Consumers Union, told the Washington Post.
The panel said in its report that while nearly 2/3 of Americans are wallowing in broadband bliss and 1/3 have access but haven’t subscribed, 4% have no access whatsoever. The panel also expects smartphones to march ahead of blander phones by 2011.
Image Credit: RTE
Comments are closed on this article
Mr1337
October 02, 2009 at 12:01am
To blackcat77 & JonnyNYK you only get that kind of speed is because comcrap uses SpeedBoost that doubles your speed for only 10 seconds after that its less then what you pay for. And you should never trust a flash based speed test they can only ruffly estimate your speed.
mesiah
September 30, 2009 at 9:25pm
You know what the response to this is going to be... "At the current rate of bandwidth consumtion we are simply unable to meet demands. This is a sign that bandwidth caps and metered internet should be implemented to ensure quality of service."
Translation: "We need to upgrade our infrastructure, but bentleys aren't cheap... Did I say bentleys? I ment hardware."
I Jedi
September 30, 2009 at 6:47pm
So, in other words, that nice 15th place we were enjoying is more like a 25th place in the World Wide Web of Broadband access? :/
ranron
September 30, 2009 at 10:20am
I recently got Comcast. I heard about their lack of proper service. Well it turns out it's not as bad as I thought.
Anyways, I pay for a 16D/2U plan for $60/month. Not exactly cheap, but from my tests I get at least 2MB/s anytime I use it which is 16Mbps. Uploads hover around 250KB/s which is 2Mbps. That's pretty good.
The downside is I have to pay for business class service to get here; they have to make at least the guarantee and maintain priority access. At least I don't have bandwidth caps with this business service, but as a residential customer I shouldn't have to pay more for slow speeds to avoid such a cap.
That said, I'm getting 99.999% of my promised bandwidth which is satisfactory—all this just at a less than willing price.
---
Ran
D3lt4
September 30, 2009 at 5:16pm
You sold your soul to the devil, I dont want to hear your voice
:P
Kaldor
September 30, 2009 at 9:25am
I used to work for TDS Telecom. They oversold their bandwidth ALL the time. People would call and complain about not being to do anything on the internet. Id have them run a speed test. They would pull 300k instead of the 6 meg they were paying for. Transfer to customer service for incoming rant...
ISPs need to be help accountable for this. Its false advertising at its finest.
I use Verizon DSL at home. 3 meg down, 768 up connection. I never have any problems, speeds are always at 3 or slightly faster. People ask why I dont get Charter cable. Its because they oversell their network as well. Paying for 8 meg and getting 1 is not kosher. Not to mention having to reboot my modem a couple of times a week isnt kosher either.
MeTo
September 30, 2009 at 9:05am
When they advertise speed or sell by speed they should have to do it by average speed (not up to). The average speed is what you really get. It has been my experience my speed changes at different times of the day and different days of the week.
snapple00
September 30, 2009 at 7:59am
Fios here. They told me I would get a max of 10 mb down. I routinely check the speed on some internet speed test website and it is always around 9.6 - 9.8.
I'm happy with it but 45 dollars / month seems a little steep. But I don't have any caps!
Tweak_BL
September 30, 2009 at 6:19am
You all should run on Hughesnet Satelllite Internets for a week. LOL
devin3627
September 30, 2009 at 2:33am
my clearwire should be 1500kb but only does 800 kbps max and varies and is as low as 100kbps sometimes.
blackcat77
September 29, 2009 at 10:29pm
I'm supposed to get 16 megs down and 1 meg up. I get 22 megs down and 2.2 megs up routinely. And my ISP is that personification of evil -- Comcast.
JonnyNYK
September 30, 2009 at 7:06am
I also am with Comcast, again, and I am subscribed as a 15down/3up yet I get 30down/7up consistently. I used to live closer to Boston, MA and was subscribed to 20/4 and was only getting 14-16down. Although it may be a glitch that I am getting such great bandwidth right now, still if i was subscribed to 30/7, I am getting exactly that. So I think it partially has to do with where you live.
RCN (if anyone knows that service) is far worse when it comes to this in my experience though. I was under their 20down/2up plan a year ago. For the first month, I got actually more than that. But after that month, it was down to only 12down on a consistent basis. They claimed that having 60% of 20mbps was considered "acceptable". And as you can tell, I am no longer with them...
And yes, Comcast is the devil Bobby!
