Millions in US still living life in Internet slow lane

[Independent voter]

I get 1 to 3 Mbits down here to my desktop. Phone is much faster but I have to pay if I exceed my quota.





http://arstechnica.com/information-t...net-slow-lane/

Millions of Americans still have extremely slow Internet speeds, a new Federal Communications Commission report shows. While the FCC defines broadband as download speeds of 25Mbps, about 47.5 million home or business Internet connections provided speeds below that threshold.

Dealing with speeds a bit lower than the broadband standard isn't too horrible, but there are still millions with speeds that just aren't anywhere close to modern. Out of 102.2 million residential and business Internet connections, 22.4 million offered download speeds less than 10Mbps, with 5.8 million of those offering less than 3Mbps. About 25.1 million connections offered at least 10Mbps but less than 25Mbps.

54.7 million households had speeds of at least 25Mbps, with 15.4 million of those at 100Mbps or higher. These are the advertised speeds, not the actual speeds consumers receive. Some customers will end up with slower speeds than what they pay for.
FCC

Upload speeds are poor for many Americans as well. While the FCC uses 3Mbps as the upload broadband standard, 16 million households had packages with upload speeds less than 1Mbps. Another 27.2 million connections were between 1Mbps and 3Mbps, 30.1 million connections were between 3Mbps and 6Mbps, while 29 million were at least 6Mbps.
FCC

The Internet Access Services report released last week contains data as of December 31, 2015. The 11-month gap is typical for these reports, which are based on information collected from Internet service providers. The latest data is nearly a year old, so things might look a bit better now, just as the December 2015 numbers are a little better than previous ones:
Enlarge
FCC

The data is based on the speed tiers consumers purchase, rather than the fastest speed tier available where they live. Some people with slow connections live in areas where they could purchase faster speeds, but there are still many parts of the country where slow DSL or satellite is sadly the best option.

The report provides the latest numbers on how much competition exists for various speeds in each developed census block. Just as in previous reports, customers don't have much, or any, choice of providers offering high speeds. Only 24 percent of developed census blocks had at least two ISPs offering broadband at the standard of 25Mbps downstream and 3Mbps upstream. There were zero such providers in 29 percent of the census blocks:

Many homes don't have fixed Internet service, whether it's because the residents can't afford it, don't want it, can't buy it due to lack of availability, or make do with mobile Internet. Residential fixed connections are up to 93 million, after more than doubling since 2005, but there were still just 72 residential fixed Internet connections for every 100 US households. The data on fixed Internet connections includes DSL, cable, fiber, satellite, fixed wireless, and even rare connection types such as broadband over power lines.
DSL and satellite connections struggle

Separately, the FCC last week also released its latest Measuring Broadband America report, which compares advertised speeds to actual speeds by testing in the homes of more than 4,000 Internet subscribers. The median download speed for US consumers was measured at 39Mbps, up from 32Mbps the previous year.

One of the key statistics from this report "is the 80/80 speed consistency which is the speed that at least 80 percent of the subscribers experience at least 80 percent of the time over peak periods," the FCC said. "Optimum [formerly Cablevision], Charter, Time Warner Cable and Verizon (FiOS) did well with values rising above 90 percent of the advertised speed. This ratio fell below 50 percent for AT&T (DSL), Frontier (fiber) and Viasat (satellite)."

DSL performs worse than cable and fiber when it comes to matching advertised speeds, as DSL speeds are significantly lower for consumers who live farther away from the facilities that serve each neighborhood. Satellite services struggled, with actual speeds dropping because new customer additions and increased usage per customer cut into current capacity. Even DSL speeds crept up a bit in 2015, but satellite speeds went down:

[the game]

It's because the ISP's have very little incentive to improve on their current network plans. Google fiber looked good but I think I read recently that they've halted expansion.

[oxymoronic]

not sure if this thread is suppose to be taken seriously and what exactly are you trying to discuss? somebody link him the last one so he can better understand why. or he can bury his head in the sand and never understand.

- - - Updated - - -

It's because the ISP's have very little incentive to improve on their current network plans. Google fiber looked good but I think I read recently that they've halted expansion.

current plans are great, if you live in an area with people.

[Kujako]

The US isn't even in the top ten FYI. Average speed is around 13Mb/s

[SirBeef]

This all has to do with lack of competition and the unwillingness of the big ISPs to actually invest in broadband across the country instead, they leech off the government and other industries to lay the foundation, which is and will take forever.

[Annoying]

It's because the ISP's have very little incentive to improve on their current network plans. Google fiber looked good but I think I read recently that they've halted expansion.

Very little incentive except for the $200B we already gave them to do so. The $200B that they took and gave to shareholders as profit.

[Kujako]

Very little incentive except for the $200B we already gave them to do so. The $200B that they took and gave to shareholders as profit.

How does giving them money incentivize them to do things? Seems like it would have the opposite effect. In the words of Charlie Sheen, "I already got your money dude".

[Ornerybear]

my wife and I just recently bought a house. it only has limited availability for providers so we had to choose between at&t and time warner. ugh. we went with the price as the decider and went with at&t. before moving we lived in the city and used a smaller internet provider called WOW for a couple years. cheap and fast and very reliable, sadly not available at our new house.

ALL THIS SAID, i can't complain because the new house is in the country and I do have access to fast enough internet to stream and game, but it is so much more spotty when it comes to consistent service, and i can only equate that to older infrastructure.

TL&DR I do count my blessing they even offer cable internet at our new home, because when we were still looking for houses, all of which were in the country, all of the other houses we considered/tried to buy did not have access to cable internet.

[Kujako]

My Internet speed test claims 25 mbps, but I rarely see above 4-5 mbps in practice.

This is what happens when companies are allowed to create regional pseudo monopolies by behaving like a cartel.

Are you sure you're not mixing Mb/s and mb/s?

[PixelFox]

I can still make the Carrier Detect light on a 300-baud acoustic-coupler come on by whistling into it, so don't talk to me until you've lived with 30-byte-per-second internet, mister my-internet-is-a-million-times-faster-than-yours-was.

[Deleted]

61.6 mbs download, 25.8 mbs upload. (AT&T test)
80.4 mbs download, 24.07 mbs upload. (Xfinity test)
66.7 mbs download, 24.36 mbs upload. (Verizon test)

Comcast - Nashville, TN.

[Kujako]

It's Mbps if the capitalization matters.

It does... ISPs list speeds in lower case m's, meaning megabit/s while upper case M means megabyte/s. There are 8 M's per m. So if they promise 25mb/s you should expect a bit over 3Mb/s.

[Sevarin]

i must be old. i thought slow meant 56k or 28.8.

[Kujako]

Actually, as far as I'm aware, its Mbps vs. MBps. So, 8 Mbps = 1 MBps. 25 Mbps should be roughly 3 MBps. He's getting more than he should, lucky guy.

edit: you already did the math, but the capitalization I corrected

Seen it go both ways, but if one is capitalized it tends to mean byte vs bit. No real standard... and then there's mibibits and gibibits so that drive makers can screw us...

[oxymoronic]

The US isn't even in the top ten FYI. Average speed is around 13Mb/s

lmao so sad people believe that

Out of 102.2 million residential and business Internet connections, 22.4 million offered download speeds less than 10Mbps, with 5.8 million of those offering less than 3Mbps. About 25.1 million connections offered at least 10Mbps but less than 25Mbps. 54.7 million households had speeds of at least 25Mbps, with 15.4 million of those at 100Mbps or higher.

do the math and it tells you that the min number is above that. now you have to wonder why people want USA to be misrepresented. this isnt the 1st time either, happens in a lot of areas.

[Guyv3r]

Tackling the real problems here!

[Annoying]

Seen it go both ways, but if one is capitalized it tends to mean byte vs bit. No real standard... and then there's mibibits and gibibits so that drive makers can screw us...

ISP speeds are in megabits -> Mb. Downloads are usually shown in megabytes -> MB. There are 8 bits in a byte. Lowercase "m" means milli and has no use in speeds, as bits can't be divided.

There is a standard which is the SI standard. Mebibits are 1024 kibibits while megabits are 1000 kilobits.

[zenkai]

It's because the ISP's have very little incentive to improve on their current network plans. Google fiber looked good but I think I read recently that they've halted expansion.

Problem with google fiber is they are only going to big cities anyway. The good news though, like in the city I live near, just the threat of them coming in forced AT&T to crank up their upload/download speed.

- - - Updated - - -

I get 1 to 3 Mbits down here to my desktop. Phone is much faster but I have to pay if I exceed my quota.





http://arstechnica.com/information-t...net-slow-lane/

Millions of Americans still have extremely slow Internet speeds, a new Federal Communications Commission report shows. While the FCC defines broadband as download speeds of 25Mbps, about 47.5 million home or business Internet connections provided speeds below that threshold.

Dealing with speeds a bit lower than the broadband standard isn't too horrible, but there are still millions with speeds that just aren't anywhere close to modern. Out of 102.2 million residential and business Internet connections, 22.4 million offered download speeds less than 10Mbps, with 5.8 million of those offering less than 3Mbps. About 25.1 million connections offered at least 10Mbps but less than 25Mbps.

54.7 million households had speeds of at least 25Mbps, with 15.4 million of those at 100Mbps or higher. These are the advertised speeds, not the actual speeds consumers receive. Some customers will end up with slower speeds than what they pay for.
FCC

Upload speeds are poor for many Americans as well. While the FCC uses 3Mbps as the upload broadband standard, 16 million households had packages with upload speeds less than 1Mbps. Another 27.2 million connections were between 1Mbps and 3Mbps, 30.1 million connections were between 3Mbps and 6Mbps, while 29 million were at least 6Mbps.
FCC

The Internet Access Services report released last week contains data as of December 31, 2015. The 11-month gap is typical for these reports, which are based on information collected from Internet service providers. The latest data is nearly a year old, so things might look a bit better now, just as the December 2015 numbers are a little better than previous ones:
Enlarge
FCC

The data is based on the speed tiers consumers purchase, rather than the fastest speed tier available where they live. Some people with slow connections live in areas where they could purchase faster speeds, but there are still many parts of the country where slow DSL or satellite is sadly the best option.

The report provides the latest numbers on how much competition exists for various speeds in each developed census block. Just as in previous reports, customers don't have much, or any, choice of providers offering high speeds. Only 24 percent of developed census blocks had at least two ISPs offering broadband at the standard of 25Mbps downstream and 3Mbps upstream. There were zero such providers in 29 percent of the census blocks:

Many homes don't have fixed Internet service, whether it's because the residents can't afford it, don't want it, can't buy it due to lack of availability, or make do with mobile Internet. Residential fixed connections are up to 93 million, after more than doubling since 2005, but there were still just 72 residential fixed Internet connections for every 100 US households. The data on fixed Internet connections includes DSL, cable, fiber, satellite, fixed wireless, and even rare connection types such as broadband over power lines.
DSL and satellite connections struggle

Separately, the FCC last week also released its latest Measuring Broadband America report, which compares advertised speeds to actual speeds by testing in the homes of more than 4,000 Internet subscribers. The median download speed for US consumers was measured at 39Mbps, up from 32Mbps the previous year.

One of the key statistics from this report "is the 80/80 speed consistency which is the speed that at least 80 percent of the subscribers experience at least 80 percent of the time over peak periods," the FCC said. "Optimum [formerly Cablevision], Charter, Time Warner Cable and Verizon (FiOS) did well with values rising above 90 percent of the advertised speed. This ratio fell below 50 percent for AT&T (DSL), Frontier (fiber) and Viasat (satellite)."

DSL performs worse than cable and fiber when it comes to matching advertised speeds, as DSL speeds are significantly lower for consumers who live farther away from the facilities that serve each neighborhood. Satellite services struggled, with actual speeds dropping because new customer additions and increased usage per customer cut into current capacity. Even DSL speeds crept up a bit in 2015, but satellite speeds went down:

Yeah, I would support government stepping in to get good internet to remote places.

[Deleted]

Very little incentive except for the $200B we already gave them to do so. The $200B that they took and gave to shareholders as profit.

You should check out the Google fiber fiasco here in Nashville.

The Nashville area is very rocky underneath the top soil so in many places the utility lines have to be strung on poles. GF has been battling Verizon and Comcast over the rights to "move" their infrastructure without consulting them first.

Also, they have caused a few gas pipeline breaks and water main breaks when they DO lay fiber underground.

The last I read, GF was cutting back on their expansion but they are already committed to Nashville and have stated they intend to finish this project off.

[Septik]

here its not the speed that is behind, its the ridiculous prices.