NPR Interview about US Internet Providers and Net Neutrality

[koiulpoi]

http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2014/02/06/272480919/when-it-comes-to-high-speed-internet-u-s-falling-way-behind

 

Nothing new here for any well-read member of this site, but Professor Susan Crawford made her points very well, and I'm glad that we're finally starting to actually have the conversation about this. Worth the read/listen.

[caspar347]

The Verge has done similar interviews, and every time I see one, I get depressed. I'm still surprised nothing has really been done about this. By the way, a bill has been proposed to give temporary power to the FCC to enforce the open internet rules overthrown in Verizon vs. FCC (mentioned about halfway through the article) again until something more formal can be written up. Its H.R. 3982 if you want to write to your reps. (I did.)

[greenvillesc]

Coming from person that don't have any high speed internet other than a Verizon LTE air card that seems to get slower ever month, it sucks not having a wire service. After many calls and signed petition from a large number of people, Charter (our cable internet provider in the Greenville Sc area) seems to lose it ever time when I make a follow-up call to check the status. AT&T isn't any better, when I call them I'm told "theirs no dsl slots left and no u verse available to you at this time, but we will notify you when a slot opens up for dsl". I have spoken with several different field techs from At&t that work my area, they all have told me there's plenty of dsl slots open, but they have stopped offering new services on dsl because they have a few area's close by that now have u verse, and are planning to phase dsl out, but yet they have no plan to run anymore fiber for u verse. I'm starting to feel like a T-Mobile customer ; as soon as I get a mile out of city limits I have 2g service.

 

Say if YouTube is changed more from AT&T not to slow them down, and youtube said no we want pay you this fee . If Sprint uses AT&T for backhaul, would this affect Sprints speeds too?

[z250kid]

Coming from person that don't have any high speed internet other than a Verizon LTE air card that seems to get slower ever month, it sucks not having a wire service. After many calls and signed petition from a large number of people, Charter (our cable internet provider in the Greenville Sc area) seems to lose it ever time when I make a follow-up call to check the status. AT&T isn't any better, when I call them I'm told "theirs no dsl slots left and no u verse available to you at this time, but we will notify you when a slot opens up for dsl". I have spoken with several different field techs from At&t that work my area, they all have told me there's plenty of dsl slots open, but they have stopped offering new services on dsl because they have a few area's close by that now have u verse, and are planning to phase dsl out, but yet they have no plan to run anymore fiber for u verse. I'm starting to feel like a T-Mobile customer ; as soon as I get a mile out of city limits I have 2g service.

 

Say if YouTube is changed more from AT&T not to slow them down, and youtube said no we want pay you this fee . If Sprint uses AT&T for backhaul, would this affect Sprints speeds too?

i don't believe so. Fiber can have theoretically any speed.  Sprint has there own back haul provided by att that i bet they pay for unlimited data. 

[z250kid]

The comments in that article are horrendous.  I dont know what average american wants to there house.   Sounds like they want over 1gbps.   I have 30mbps with a 20ms ping more than enough to stream and download and play battlefield 4 online.  Than again i hate WiFi everything but phones have cat6 to them!!!  With gigabit router and switch.

[Fraydog]

One major difference I have with Susan Crawford - places like Seoul can deliver fiber to the home far cheaper because of the incredible urban density. That said, DOCSIS 3.1 can do most of the things she wants without a super major expensive fiber buildout. That said, I'm all for whacking VZW/AT&T in the throat with forcing an unbundling of the local loop. I also think private companies should do fiber overbuilds when possible. If all else fails then municipalities should be allowed to step up.

[ddimit]

An interesting take.  Chattanooga's local Utility stepped up to the plate.

 

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/fastest-internet-service-in-us-found-in-an-unlikely-city/

 

And on the opposite side Kansas  tried to float a bill by the cable industry to ban municipalities from offering internet services until it got  some exposure and blow back.

 

http://cjonline.com/news/state/2014-02-05/wire-cut-senate-bill-banning-municipal-broadband-networks

[koiulpoi]

One major difference I have with Susan Crawford - places like Seoul can deliver fiber to the home far cheaper because of the incredible urban density.

She covers that in her interview, quite well:

 

CRAWFORD: Well, let's take Sweden for example, very sensible country, actually just as thinly populated as the United States. In Stockholm you can get a connection that's 18 times faster than the one I have in my New York City apartment for a quarter of the price. In Seoul you can get a similarly, you know, many multiples of times faster connection for a fifth of the price.

 

New York City's peer city in this regard is Istanbul. We're paying many, many times more what other people in particularly countries like Norway and South Korea and Japan and Sweden are paying for far inferior service.

 

...

 

DAVIES: Is one explanation for the inferiority of our networks the fact that we're such a geographically large country with a population that's, you know, particularly an affluent population that's sprawled out across suburbs and exurbs and rural areas and cities?

 

CRAWFORD: No, because again, Sweden is just as sparsely populated as we are. And, in fact, something like 70 percent of Americans live in 2 percent of the land mass. We're pretty clustered. No, what's happened in America it's that we've gotten stuck on a plateau, that the cable guys have taken the wired marketplace, absolutely. They control it. The telcos - AT&T and Verizon - have retreated to a wireless, where their profits are more certain and they're not building out more fiber. And we're stuck at the second-class network stage, which is relying on cable for all of our wired connections.

 

They're never going to upgrade. They're under no competitive threat and under no oversight threat to act any differently.

[The Dave]

This is my neighborhood. There is a vast number of houses, businesses, the World Golf Village and attractions here. Yes, St Augustine isn't a city. But, it is a tourist destination and it is a 12k population only 20 minutes from Jacksonville, the largest spread of a city metro area in the nation. But, we cannot get DSL, we cannot get U Verse, we only get Comcast and satellite for broadband and both options are terrible for service and price since there is no competition.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/lp98jws4ino1pyx/image.jpg

[bigsnake49]

This is my neighborhood. There is a vast number of houses, businesses, the World Golf Village and attractions here. Yes, St Augustine isn't a city. But, it is a tourist destination and it is a 12k population only 20 minutes from Jacksonville, the largest spread of a city metro area in the nation. But, we cannot get DSL, we cannot get U Verse, we only get Comcast and satellite for broadband and both options are terrible for service and price since there is no competition.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/lp98jws4ino1pyx/image.jpg

 

Where is EBS for fixed broadband when you need it?

[The Dave]

Where is EBS for fixed broadband when you need it?

I remember about 5 years ago when Clearwire first "came to the area" and had signs all over the roads, sidewalk, stapled to the light poles, etc. I excitedly went to the website, ordered a hotspot and eagerly installed it days later. No connection. The website showed my house covered by "excellent" WiMAX with the promise of unlimited 4G internet, but unless I went outside and about 1/4 mile down the road, I got no signal. I was stuck on AT&T dial up for about 2 years before Comcast "blessed" us with $80 broadband with a "small" $7 modem rental fee and a " blazing" 10 Mbps peek speed. Fortunately, after numerous complaints to the Department of Consumer affairs, I was allowed to buy a modem from eBay for $39 and waive the rental fee and the speeds are now closer to 20 Mbps (when it works). Unfortunately, it is expensive and anytime it gets windy, rainy, too many people are online or if the cows all line up parallel to the equator it seems that the cable goes down. It sure beats dial up, but I won't lie that I do often take my phone off wifi and use my LTE connection. Sprint is rock solid for me, so I am glad to be a Sprint customer.

[mrknowitall526]

[quote name="The Dave" post="280236" timestamp="139196039

 

if the cows all line up parallel to the equator it seems that the cable goes down.

 

This made me literally LOL... But I so know what you mean!

 

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