Comments on: Some broadband is better than others, like fiber and …. satellite!

By: Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 19:35:20 +0000

The report has a tasty nugget of data on the upload side, where it shows that all technologies – DSL, Fiber, and cable – deliver more on the upstream side than advertised. The only way this can happen is for people to use the upstream side very lightly.

To the astute observer, the dearth of traffic on the upstream side casts further doubt on Susan Crawford’s claim that Americans will need gigabit uploads in five years to be a competitive economy. But that’s not even the most ridiculous thing Crawford says.

By: Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 19:27:29 +0000

I’ve never come close to Comcast cap, but they’ve never really enforced it as far as I can tell. You have to download an awful lot of video to get even close.

By: Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 19:24:51 +0000

Satellite is important for the rednecks in the boondocks, but not for city people. The Australian National Broadband Network is only going to wire 93% of the populatiion. Two percent will use terrestrial wireless and five percent will have to use satellite. That’s a responsible use of taxpayer dollars, more or less.

The U. S. has risen from 22nd in the 4Q 2009 Akamai Average Connection Speed ranking to 8th in the most recent period. Whatever we’re doing is working.

By: Paul Natsch

Paul Natsch — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 17:39:57 +0000

The fact that satellite providers have such ridiculously low caps make them pretty much useless for just about anything. Sure you can do basic web browsing and email a bit faster but that’s about it if your family expects to be under the cap for the whole month. I know some people have no choice, and that it’s actually improved quite a bit from even a few years ago, but it’s still ridiculous.

By: Stuart Pierce

Stuart Pierce — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 23:01:57 +0000

You really have missed the boat on not including wireless broadband as a bandwidth method. I know for a fact personally that wireless ( not celluar ) can perform as well as cable and in some cases fiber. Satellite doesn’t even enter into the realm as wireless, so it’s a non-issue. Fiber is still the King of delivery and is the backend for many of the transport methods. http://www.wispa.org is a good starting point.

By: Stacey Higginbotham

Stacey Higginbotham — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 19:14:17 +0000

Er, hi Bill. I would totally use the FiOS if it were available in my area :)

By: Stacey Higginbotham

Stacey Higginbotham — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 19:13:09 +0000

I worry with AT&T and the 250 GB cap, that we would come pretty close to breaking through that. We consume quite a bit of bandwidth at Chez Higginbotham. But I agree that it does tend to be more consistent.

By: Stacey Higginbotham

Stacey Higginbotham — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 19:11:59 +0000

I was judging based solely on these charts. The wiring is brand new and my service tends to jump all over the place in terms of Mbps so I’d have to average it out to learn how it ranks in terms of achieving the 30 Mbps I pay for.

By: Don E

Don E — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 18:38:54 +0000

I have AT&T U-verse and love it. I also a SamKnows router and the monthly reports show my service is very consistent and rock solid. Prior to U-verse I had TWC which was great at times but very inconsistent. When I would work from home my service with TWC would go way down everyday shortly after the school bus dropped off the kids in the neighborhood. Since I’ve had U-verse (3 years now) I have consistent broadband service.

By: Bill Kula

Bill Kula — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 18:26:41 +0000

Bill Kula here with Verizon PR.

Verizon’s blog and official statement about the FCC broadband performance test can be accessed here: http://newscenter.verizon.com/residential/news-articles/2013-02-verizon-fios-fcc-broadband-performance-test/

“As the FCC report showed, every FiOS Internet speed tier delivered more than 100 percent of its advertised and sustained download performance during peak Internet usage periods, differentiating FiOS Internet from most cable company competitors.

“The FCC’s findings reaffirm the results from the past two FCC broadband performance tests, which found that FiOS Internet provides blazing-fast and sustained upstream and downstream speeds as well as low latency even during the peak Internet usage time periods of 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. local time.

“FiOS Quantum speeds of 50 Mbps or higher will increasingly become what most of our customers use because it provides capacity a step above competing services, as households add and use more Internet-connected tablets, laptops, video game consoles, smart TVs, Blu-ray players, streaming video services and smartphones.

“While the number of Internet-connected devices grows, so too does the amount of time that consumers use those devices simultaneously, boosting their demand for not only fast downloads and uploads but also consistent and reliable performance at all times of the day. Consistently faster Internet service helps consumers get more value from all the Internet-connected devices they’re using.”