The National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) last week wrote in an FCC filing that a majority of consumers don’t need a lot of broadband because most aren’t using it as much as you think. FCC Chairman has said faster Internet is not happening “in a reasonable and timely fashion,” and is considering defining “broadband” at 25 Mbps or faster, but the NCTA is against it. The NCTA wrote that an example citing the “average” consumer as streaming three movies online at the same time while also checking email and doing other activities online, was a dramatic exaggeration that didn’t represent what most people do.
The FCC is meeting next month to go over rules governing the Internet, and is proposing to expand the commission’s regulatory authority over broadband services and supporting net neutrality.
Net neutrality proponents claim that Internet providers in particular are trying to impose a tiered system that slows the pipeline down which creates artificial competition by offering faster service for more money, which would restrict access to only those who can pay. Internet providers, meanwhile, argue that high-bandwidth services such as video streaming should pay more because they use up more data. Restrictions on more data, they say, will hinder efforts to make broadband more accessible.
The FCC defines broadband as 4Mbps downloads and 1Mbps uploads, but that hasn’t changed since 2010.
