My understanding is that it took the FCC to force the phone companies to turn loose of DSL and allow all ISPs to provide DSL service. I pay my phone company for a “high speed” DSL line of 3M/640k, but I never get that. Just ran the test and got 1633k Down and 537k Up. I get almost daily ads from Qwest that I can get much higher speeds if I change to fiberoptic. However my ISP says the only way I can get fiberoptic service... more »
The concept of an open home gateway is one of the least noticed and most important of the components of a national broadband plan, and I believe the US is at a critical crossroads. On one path is an incredible opportunity: *to help close the digital divide, *to create an entire ecosystem of connected TV that allow a freedom of communication that can quickly reach virtually all citizens, *to create entire new industries... more »
To achieve the goal of supporting a wide range of applications in diversified fields, broadband itself must first be simplified to be like a utility that concentrates on delivering resources only. Otherwise, users will be distracted by broadband issues and can not focus on applications of interest. This is particularly true for home environment where technical support staff in any form should not be expected to be a norm.... more »
I suggest that we settle on one definition of broadband that is technology neutral, i.e. it sets a basic, minimum standard for performance and connectivity to the web and anything below that is NOT considered broadband. This would remove device or user specific issues, and focus on the true broadban plan goal -- basic connectivity for every American
I recommend the FCC coordinate with other federal agencies to collect and analyze various data streams regarding physical broadband infrastructure deployment and consumer / enterprise adoption and use to ensure data interoperability and collect a wider range of relevant statistics.
Some of us have NO ACCESS at all to Broadband. What's it gonna take?? This isn't about pricing~ I pay *more* to have two phone lines so that I'm not bumped off the dial-up, and so that people can actually reach me. And I pay the same in this area for dial up as people who have low-end Broadband. This is obscene!! Broadband is not offered to us because we live in rural Arkansas. We've been clamoring for years for... more »
There are several cable companies out there who are limiting their users to 250GB of bandwidth per month and some even charge for going over and that's not at all appropriate in a society that can far exceed those limits. We should be allowed to use our connection as we please and do what we want with it without having to worry about going over a bandwidth limit. Hosting home servers should be allowed without having... more »