FCC Moves Slowly To Update Definition Of Broadband To Something Still Pathetic::For decades, the FCC has maintained an arguably pathetic definition of “broadband,” allowing the telecom industry to under-deliver substandard access. And despite some new rhetoric from the agency under Biden, that doesn’t appear to be changing anytime soon. Broadband was originally defined as any 200 kbps connection. In 2010, that pathetic definition was changed to…

    • Kogasa@programming.dev
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      25
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      11 months ago

      This is just so people can’t self host media, right? Why else would they obsessively cap upload speeds?

      • TwinHaelix@reddthat.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        26
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        11 months ago

        DOCSIS (AKA internet service over coaxial cable) deals in some number of bonded channels, meaning portions of the total available bandwidth on the wire. They asymmetrically allocate channels to download speeds to overcome the limitations of the older copper wire technology. 100Mbps symmetrical is beyond what most of their existing “Broadband” infrastructure can support in rural and underserved areas, so they complained about it being unreasonable. 100Mbps symmetrical is certainly possible over DOCSIS, but speeds are only as fast as the weakest link… And there are a helluva lot of weak links outside of high population density areas.

  • Burn_The_Right@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    11
    ·
    edit-2
    11 months ago

    The FCC is exlusively operated by past, present and future industry lobbyists. They are a perfect example of “regulatory capture” manifest.

    In the 90’s they started auctioning off broadcast licenses to the highest bidders, turning the FCC into a profit machine while completely destroying small, private radio and TV stations. Media belongs exclusively to corporations now because of the FCC.

    There is absolutely no reason to respect the FCC at all. Not even a little. They need to be completely erased and replaced with a legitimate oversight organization that cannot be so easily taken over by corporations.

  • BombOmOm@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    6
    ·
    11 months ago

    For anyone using cable, 20 mbps up would be a nice improvement. Real hard to do remote backups and share files with friends when the speed is so much lower than that.