in Politics, X-Geek

Raising the broadband bar in NC

There’s been plenty afoot in the N.C. General Assembly this session regarding broadband internet, as those couple of you who read my blog are well aware. Now there’s an effort by the telecom industry to define “broadband service” in North Carolina. House Bill 283 would define any Internet service with speeds faster than 1.5 Mbps down and 384 kbps up.

So let me ask you … how many of you would consider that “broadband?” How many of you would die a slow death using the Internet at those speeds? A measly 1.5 Mbps/384kbs might have been considered “broadband” 15 years ago but it certainly doesn’t pass for that today, now that countries like Japan have jaw-dropping 160 Mbps cable modem service. Arguably these slow speeds weren’t considered “broadband” 15 years ago, either!

What’s the implication? The telecoms wants the law to treat a sucky WiMax (or worse) connection as competition to a cable modem, DSL service, or a fiber connection (like Verizon offers in New England but not here). That way telecoms can claim what they’re offering is good enough when we know it really isn’t.

Fortunately, our municipal broadband advocates are pushing a substitute bill that defines “broadband service” as 5 Mbps *symmetrical*. This definition would conveniently make the municipal Internet systems of Wilson and Salisbury the only two in the state that qualify thus far as “broadband services.”

This bill is in the House Ways and Means/Broadband Connectivity committee and with your support it will advance on Wednesday. Regardless of your thoughts on municipal Internet, I think you’ll agree that the world has long ago outpaced speeds of 1.5 Mbps/384kbps. If you think it’s time to raise the broadband bar to 5 Mbps symmetrical, let these folks know you enthusiastically support House Bill 283:

Bill Faison 715-3019
Angela Bryant 733-5878

Here’s a copy of the new, improved bill
making 5Mbps the new broadband standard in NC. [PDF]

  1. Not only that, but it appears to try to push all of NC to be wired up for “affordable” “advanced broadband” (defined as 45 Mbps symmetrical) by 2012 and “affordable” “full broadband” (defined as 100 Mbps symmetrical) by 2018. Now, that would really set us apart.

  2. Considering the aforementioned Japanese broadband is only $20/month, I think there is significant room for Time Warner Cable to provide more for the money its customers pay.

  3. Mark,

    First off, your Angela Bryant link is broken.

    Secondly, shouldn’t we contact our personal reps? Or does it matter?

    Thirdly, I guess I don’t get it…what’s the point of defining broadband anyway? Seems sort of meaningless to create a definition that will get outdated in a few years. But, if it does matter I’m definitely more in favor of the 5Mbps rate so give me the 411, yo.

  4. It never hurts to contact your reps, true. It’s just that they are almost guaranteed not to have heard about this yet. That’s why you can make the biggest impact now by contacting the committee members.

    I know it seems like semantics at this point but I believe the cable-company definition of broadband is long outdated, so why not put in numbers that match today’s reality?

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