FCC adopts new broadband penetration metrics

bealtine

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080615-jokes-over-fcc-establishes-new-broadband-measurement-system.html

Joke's over: FCC adopts new broadband penetration metrics

By Matthew Lasar | Published: June 15, 2008 - 10:50PM CT

The Federal Communications Commission has officially revised the way that it measures broadband penetration, a system that was formerly the laughing stock of some observers in Europe. The agency will no longer define either upload or download speed at 200 Kbps as "high speed broadband." Rather, it will diplomatically classify this and all connections up to 768K with the gentle phrase "First Generation data."

"I am pleased that the Commission finally moved away from its antiquated definition of broadband as 200 kilobits per second, which had become something of a running joke," declared Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate after Thursday's Order.

Here are the FCC's new classifications for tiers of Internet service:

* "First Generation data:" 200 Kbps up to 768 Kbps
* "Basic Broadband:" 768 Kbps to 1.5 Mbps
* 1.5 Mbps to < 3.0 Mbps
* 3.0 Mbps to < 6.0 Mbps
* 6.0 Mbps to < 10.0 Mbps
* 10.0 Mbps to < 25.0 Mbps
* 25.0 Mbps but < 100.0 Mbps
* 100.0 Mbps and beyond

The Commission has also revised its Form 477, which Internet service providers fill out to provide the agency with a snapshot of the state of national broadband penetration. At present, ISPs must report all five digit zip codes in which they have at least one customer. This distorted method created the broadband equivalent of "rotten boroughs" in pre-Victorian England—rural districts that were home to only a handful of farmers but still enjoyed full representation in Parliament. Now the agency will collect actual subscribership numbers in Census Tract areas rather than zip codes. The data will be further broken down by the new broadband categories and types of technology used.

The agency will also apply this new system of measurement to mobile wireless device users, and it will count VoIP subscribers more rigorously. VoIP providers must report the number of end users and resale subscribers they have in each state. They will also have to report data on whether they provide a broadband connection in tandem with their service, and whether the service must be used over a particular high speed connection.
Since I joined . . .

The agency's latest assessment (through June 2007) of high speed deployment in the United States uses the old "running joke" system of measurement, to borrow Commissioner Tate's phrase: a high speed connection defined at 200 Kbps or more in at least one direction. But that did not stop FCC Chair Kevin Martin from proudly reporting and even taking a little credit for it. "During the first half of 2007, high speed lines increased by 22 percent, from over 82 million to over 100 million lines," Martin said on Thursday. "Since I joined the Commission, these lines have grown 950% from just over 9 million lines to over 100 million lines."

But a closer look at the data indicates that a much smaller number of Americans have lines at higher speeds than 2.5 Mbps: 37.7 million lines provide access at speeds greater than or equal to 2.5 Mbps but less than 10 Mbps.

While the public interest group Free Press applauded the FCC's new data collection tools, it called Martin's assessment of the latest broadband numbers "divorced from reality."

"The FCC has declared 'mission accomplished' on broadband despite the mountain of evidence of America's broadband market woes," S. Derek Turner, Free Press's research director said on Friday.

Thraktor

For reference, the CSO here in Ireland classify broadband as "always-on internet access running with a speed of greater than 128Kbps" (I believe Comreg use the same), and the OECD use a minimum of 256kbps.

watty

Since HSDPA, EDGE, Ripwave, 3G easily drop below 256kbps, they are not broadband. They can drop below 128. Some European operators only promise 100k.

On 128k physical ISDN there are no errors and with compression you can get close to 200kbps equivalent. ISDN 2 ch is NARROW band. ISDN can be configured as flat rate always on. You can aggregate two pairs and get a real 256kbps error free before compression and also have 2x X.25 channels at about 9.6k. That's still not broadband.

A 200k bps wireless link with errors and packet loss is worse than 128k (always error free) ISDN.

By no stretch of imagination is sub 200k broadband.

Note word minimum, not typical or up to

barnicles

watty wrote: »

Since HSDPA, EDGE, Ripwave, 3G easily drop below 256kbps, they are not broadband. They can drop below 128. Some European operators only promise 100k.

On 128k physical ISDN there are no errors and with compression you can get close to 200kbps equivalent. ISDN 2 ch is NARROW band. ISDN can be configured as flat rate always on. You can aggregate two pairs and get a real 256kbps error free before compression and also have 2x X.25 channels at about 9.6k. That's still not broadband.

A 200k bps wireless link with errors and packet loss is worse than 128k (always error free) ISDN.

By no stretch of imagination is sub 200k broadband.

Note word minimum, not typical or up to

watty, EDGE never goes above 236.8 anyway

watty

Here in Ireland. But that is only 4 time slots on 1 carrier (about 240k). A carrier has 8 slots and an operator could have 2 to 10 carriers in a sector. Having a Modem that can use more than 4 download slots and more than one carrier is another story. Existing EDGE can do 560k and EDGE 2.0 (3GPP rel 7) does up to 1.2Mbps.

Most Smart phones are 3GPP rel 5 with ability to do voice on separate slots/carrier to data on EDGE or voice & data simultaneously on 3G/HSDPA.

With about 8 users on HSDPA or EDGE the speed you get could be 150kbps or less depending on signal.

Beyond 400m from a base mast the 3G drops speed quickly. It starts dropping at only 20m to 50m.


So 3G/HSDPA dropping to EDGE certainly can't meet OECD specs.