Congress is debating a stimulus bill that would funnel more than $800 billion into the economy. There are two versions of it wending their way through the legislative houses, so we gathered the key differences, put them in the chart below and pointed out which ISPs and technologies win under each. Regardless of the final version, it’s safe to say that ISPs will want Congress to spend more, and equipment providers will take whatever they can get.
| House Bill | Winners | Losers | Senate Bill | Winners | Losers | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grants for Broadband | $6B | $9B | ||||
| Funds The Broadband Data Improvement Act | yes | consumers, anyone wanting to get data on actual broadband penetration | ISPs that don’t want to provide this data | yes | same as House | same as House |
| Offers Tax Credits | no | 10 percent for broadband and 20 percent for advanced broadband deployed before Jan. 1, 2011 | ISPs, equipment sellers | anyone worried about national debt | ||
| Basic Broadband Speeds | 5 Mbps down/1 Mbps up | DSL, cable, Verizon FiOS, other fiber | Dial-up, congested cable, DSL that’s far from the node | 5 Mbps down/1 Mbps up (only defined for tax credits) | same as House | same as House |
| Advanced Broadband Speeds | 45 Mbps down/15 Mbps up | Comcast (s CMCSA), Verizon (s VZ), smaller all-fiber networks | AT&T (s T), Qwest (s Q), smaller fiber-to-the-node and DSL providers; cable companies that aren’t upgrading to DOCSIS 3.0 | 100 Mbps down/20 Mbps up (only defined for tax credits) | Verizon FiOS, other all fiber providers | AT&T, Qwest, Comcast (C cmsca), Cox, Time Warner Cable (s TWC), Charter |
| Basic Wireless Broadband Speeds | no | no | ||||
| Advanced Wireless Broadband Speeds | 3 Mbps down/1Mbps up | Clearwire (s CLWR), AT&T’s HSPA+ network, Verizon’s LTE network | T-Mobile’s HSPA network, Sprint’s (s s) EVDO network, Pre-WiMAX networks | 3 Mbps down/768 kbps up (only defined for tax credits) | same as House | Consumers, especially those in rural areas only served by wireless. Anyone who wants to upload data over a wireless connection |
| Net Neutrality Language | FCC will define “open access” within 45 days of passage | Depends on how it’s defined | Depends on how it’s defined | Offers “interconnection and nondiscrimination requirements” but no definition | Depends on how it’s defined | Depends on how it’s defined |
