NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Re: Free Press: FCC used 'flawed data' in broadband plan
A personal observation about DSL (and this links to the whole debate on definitions of broadband). While using DSL (no names ;) ) I was tempted to try the the lowest price DSL which advertised 768 kbps down, and 128 kbps uplink. I was also running VoIP at home. I found the service absolutely unusable for voice. I can't recall the exact numbers for the uplink but my recollection was not that it was horribly low speed but the numbers weren't always the same over the few days of testing, which I can understand, but there must be other issues such as jitter, varying oversubscription, maybe even "management" at play. In contrast, my in-laws in India used to have a 64 kbps (!) DSL link, on which we ran crystal clear VoIP (skype) to the US, 99.5% of the time. I thus fall back to my term of "meaningful broadband" - it's more than just the speed. Rahul On Mon, Apr 26, 2010 at 11:00 AM, Larry Press <lpress@csudh.edu> wrote: > > > On 4/25/2010 8:23 PM, Dan Gillmor wrote: >>> >>> spectrum in the US where they advertise 50 and actually deliver close to >>> 50? > > > "They" must be Verizon in this case, and perhaps they deliver a consistent > 50 mbps over FIOS (for $140/month). (What percent of US households can get > FIOS and how rapidly is Verizon adding new locations)? > > Verizon cannot deliver their advertised DSL speed in many areas where it is > advertised and sold. That does not stop them from signing people up then > wasting fruitless truck rolls when the customer complains. > > I recently signed up for Verizon 7 mbps DSL, and got around 1.4. It turns > out I am 9,000 feet from my central office -- no way to deliver 7 mbps, but > the marketing folks did not have access to that little detail. Verizon > happily signed me up and then sent truck out to investigate after having me > run stupid tests over the phone for an hour. The driver said he does about > 5 truck rolls per day and about three are fruitless. > > (See > http://cis471.blogspot.com/2010/04/government-and-private-industry-can-be.html > for more). > > The bottom line -- even in a zip code where some folks can get an advertised > speed, others cannot, and Verizon is too disorganized (or dishonest) to tell > the difference. > > Larry Press > > [ As NNSquad readers will recall, Verizon has announced that > except in some areas already in negotiation or other process, > they have now ceased their expansion efforts for FiOS -- no doubt > to the vast relief of some existing ISPs in areas that FiOS > doesn't -- and apparently won't -- be serving anytime soon. > > -- Lauren Weinstein > NNSquad Moderator ] > > >