(Newswire.net — January 25, 2015) — The National Cable & Telecommunications Association wrote in an FCC filing Thursday that 25Mbps/3Mbps isn’t necessary to be defined as the broadband because customers mostly do not need faster Internet speed.
Lower speeds are to be considered as “high-speed, switched, broadband telecommunications capability that enables users to originate and receive high-quality voice, data, graphics, and video telecommunications using any technology,” the NTCA said.
NTCA stated the need for 25Mbps/3Mbps “dramatically exaggerate the amount of bandwidth needed by the typical broadband user,” putting Americans behind European countries. Even less developed Balkan countries regularly have 25Mbps/3Mbps internet speed, without debating whether their citizens would be satisfied with the slower Internet speeds.
As argument, NTCA point out that “Netflix, for instance, bases its call for a 25Mbps download threshold on what it believes consumers need for streaming 4K and ultra-HD video content—despite the fact that only a tiny fraction of consumers use their broadband connections in this manner, and notwithstanding the consensus among others in the industry that 25Mbps is significantly more bandwidth than is needed for 4K streaming.”
The fact is that FCC didn’t changed it’s high-speed broadband 4Mbps down and 1Mbps up definition since 2010, and technology advanced every year. But t is not about technology, NTCA actually underestimates the users, or simply ignore the fact that an ‘average’ US household constantly streams several high-definition movies simultaneously while also running various ‘online backup services and other applications.
Furthermore, even if the NTCA loses its battle to keep the lower broadband definition, it wants to make sure that any change has no real world effect.
“As an initial matter, the Commission should make clear, as it has in prior Broadband Progress Reports, that any speed benchmark it adopts has no regulatory significance beyond the new Report,” the NTCA said.
The truth is that cable operators simply want to void further investments in technologies and the infrastructure. It is not a surprise that Verizon is opposing faster broadband definition because DSL speeds are far more limited.
According to broadband speed test website Oocla net index, US are in 23th place, behind European countries like Moldavia, Lithuania, Latvia, Luxemburg, France, Norway and Romania.