The FCC voted 3-2 to reclassify the definition of broadband, here's what it means to you

[Evernessince]

I'm so happy that where I live in romania we have no such problems. the smallest connection I can get from my ISP is 100Mbps. 1Gbps costs around 12-16$ and you get free 3G nationwide. (on 200Mbps and up contracts)

Well, this a good first step towards normality for the US. The next step is the abolishment of the laws that restrict competition. Hopefully Obama and the FCC manage to do that.

Wow, that's insane pricing. Paying $70 for a fraction of that.

 

[Evernessince]

Well FCC doesn't control the entire world, so it doesn't matter what they classify things in the US. Other countries might "look" at the example, and then likely dismiss it for any reason. Here I'm paying $60 + an extra $30 for unlimited, being the cap is a ever so blessingly kind 70GB. I'd totally love ISPs to bump up the speed but that actually means, them making an effort to build into places that wouldn't net much benefit.

Being in Canada and a small town at that, I'm at a very low priority to even get past my 15/1. I'd love to have my 15/10 as it's supposed to be rated, but being too far I'm lucky I get the full 15 at least. Also anyone ranting about having 100Mbps+ from a CABLE provider, need to understand it's a shared connection. Cable isn't a single line run to your home, in the same manner as DSL is for connections. So yes you have higher speeds, but you also share the load with anyone else on it too.

I think TechSpot should do a Cable vs DSL vs Fiber comparison, so people would stop making a fuss over it. Just everyone makes the same mistakes, mentioning their cable connection is so slow.

Actually, most of the time, fiber is a dedicated line. At the fiber junction box right out side your house, the technician's job is to create a drop. They basically strip open a large jacket containing multiple fiber stands and one goes to each house. It does depend though. Certain companies can make you share a strand but that would require extra equipment to do so.

 

[Guest]

Well. Theres one ruling. Though if the FCC starts to really regulate and makes Internet a public utility then me and you are screwed consumer. This will not create more competition. It will be like our water and power companies. They do not upgrade anything until its at breaking appoint and have no regional competition. Government sanctioned crony capitalism at its finest.

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

LOL. I only get about 7 Mbs down and I only stream. At any one point in time there is a console, tv, computer, and several tablets running at multiple times or we're streaming four different services on four different tv sets while playing games on my PC.

If you're having problems with a 105 down connection to run all of those services maybe you should question what's going on in your own home and not the "greed" of telecoms.

fyi 7 Mbps = 0.875 MB a second so I HIGHLY doubt you are streaming from 4 devices at once unless you are watching super low quality video. You can't even stream 1 HD video on that.

Yes you can. Full HD video takes 5Mbps to watch. Playing games takes FAR less. I don't know exactly what a game takes, but I've downloaded at about my max speed while playing games with no noticeable problems. True, you can't watch 4 HD videos at once, but you can use other services all at once.

However, for yRaz's 105Mbps service to not keep up, he'd need to be streaming 4 videos from Netflix in 4K resolution (they recommend 25 Mbps for 4K, only 5Mbps for HD), so he obviously isn't getting what he's paying for.

 

[EClyde]

I'm so happy that where I live in romania we have no such problems. the smallest connection I can get from my ISP is 100Mbps. 1Gbps costs around 12-16$ and you get free 3G nationwide. (on 200Mbps and up contracts)

Well, this a good first step towards normality for the US. The next step is the abolishment of the laws that restrict competition. Hopefully Obama and the FCC manage to do that.

Obama wants people more concerned with internet speeds then with real life and he doesn't have to work hard to accomplish that.

 

[BlueDrake]

Actually, most of the time, fiber is a dedicated line. At the fiber junction box right out side your house, the technician's job is to create a drop. They basically strip open a large jacket containing multiple fiber stands and one goes to each house. It does depend though. Certain companies can make you share a strand but that would require extra equipment to do so.

I was mostly referring to cable as in the general cable, that you get TV and such from and not the fiber lines. Since those are shared lines normally, with the general hub of users unless I'm mistaken? There's no way of having single user "cable" lines, I'm not sure for business class but that's an entirely different situation.

I can for the same price, actually get business service instead. Just I doubt my ISP is very willing, being they feel happy to cash grab anything.

 

[Evernessince]

I was mostly referring to cable as in the general cable, that you get TV and such from and not the fiber lines. Since those are shared lines normally, with the general hub of users unless I'm mistaken? There's no way of having single user "cable" lines, I'm not sure for business class but that's an entirely different situation.

I can for the same price, actually get business service instead. Just I doubt my ISP is very willing, being they feel happy to cash grab anything.

Fiber is sort of shared. The lines you see going from pole to pole are comprised of multiple strands of fiber. The more strands, the more bandwidth. Depending on where you live, your cable provider might splice the strand you are using for more than one house.

So I guess the answer is, it may or may not be depending on the situation. If your cable company is cheap, your going to be sharing.

You are right on cable lines. Cable lines are usually just a bundle of twisted cooper with a could of jackets to protect from weather and EMI. It's impossible not to share unless you are paying them to run a direct line to your house, which would never happen due to permits and such.

 

[Evernessince]

Yes you can. Full HD video takes 5Mbps to watch. Playing games takes FAR less. I don't know exactly what a game takes, but I've downloaded at about my max speed while playing games with no noticeable problems. True, you can't watch 4 HD videos at once, but you can use other services all at once.

However, for yRaz's 105Mbps service to not keep up, he'd need to be streaming 4 videos from Netflix in 4K resolution (they recommend 25 Mbps for 4K, only 5Mbps for HD), so he obviously isn't getting what he's paying for.

You assume that none of those packets are dropping and that none of those connections are running slow. In addition, if we use your assumption that it's possible to stream HD video and the value of 5 Mbps, you come out with a total video size of 6,120 MB (this is also assuming that you can utilize every byte out of your connection). The problem with this is that this isn't HD. The best encoders are only able to get 1080p content down to 6-7 GB with visual compromise and H.264. Seeing as netflix doesn't use H.264 (You have to pay to use it) and it is by far the best encoding format, it's safe to assume that either netflix has very crappy looking HD video or that it's not possible to reliably stream HD video on a connection of that speed.

 

[cmbjive]

fyi 7 Mbps = 0.875 MB a second so I HIGHLY doubt you are streaming from 4 devices at once unless you are watching super low quality video. You can't even stream 1 HD video on that.

No, I am steaming four devices on 7 Mbps. I have already tested my connection and I have been on that for years. I actually pay for a 12 Mbps connection, but the performance says I average about 7 Mbps. So, again, at any one time I am streaming four devices simultaneously (PS4 in the front room with the Xbox One sometimes on simultaneously, Roku in three bedrooms, WiFi on eight handhelds, a PS3 and an Xbox 360). Granted, if I had all of them going at the same time I would experience some degradation, but generally I average four devices going simultaneously.

 

[cmbjive]

You assume that none of those packets are dropping and that none of those connections are running slow. In addition, if we use your assumption that it's possible to stream HD video and the value of 5 Mbps, you come out with a total video size of 6,120 MB (this is also assuming that you can utilize every byte out of your connection). The problem with this is that this isn't HD. The best encoders are only able to get 1080p content down to 6-7 GB with visual compromise and H.264. Seeing as netflix doesn't use H.264 (You have to pay to use it) and it is by far the best encoding format, it's safe to assume that either netflix has very crappy looking HD video or that it's not possible to reliably stream HD video on a connection of that speed.

LOL. Maybe I should invite you over my house. There was one time where the service was degraded very badly and that was when I was trying to upload several large files to the Amazon cloud and it degraded the Amazon Prime service to below standard definition. Those events are very rare; but it is entirely possible to stream from four different devices in HD on a 7 Mbps connection because I do it quite frequently. When I say we only stream in our household I mean it: We have not had satellite for almost four years now and never once had cable.

 

[cmbjive]

Yes you can. Full HD video takes 5Mbps to watch. Playing games takes FAR less. I don't know exactly what a game takes, but I've downloaded at about my max speed while playing games with no noticeable problems. True, you can't watch 4 HD videos at once, but you can use other services all at once.

However, for yRaz's 105Mbps service to not keep up, he'd need to be streaming 4 videos from Netflix in 4K resolution (they recommend 25 Mbps for 4K, only 5Mbps for HD), so he obviously isn't getting what he's paying for.

Amazon also recommends 25 Mbps for 4K, but I streamed their show, Gortimer Gibbons, in 4K and it was amazing. This was also simultaneously while my kids were watching videos on their tablets.

 

[Evernessince]

No, I am steaming four devices on 7 Mbps. I have already tested my connection and I have been on that for years. I actually pay for a 12 Mbps connection, but the performance says I average about 7 Mbps. So, again, at any one time I am streaming four devices simultaneously (PS4 in the front room with the Xbox One sometimes on simultaneously, Roku in three bedrooms, WiFi on eight handhelds, a PS3 and an Xbox 360). Granted, if I had all of them going at the same time I would experience some degradation, but generally I average four devices going simultaneously.

You must be getting more bandwidth than you are thinking. How did you meter your bandwidth usage while quad streaming?

 

[cmbjive]

You must be getting more bandwidth than you are thinking. How did you meter your bandwidth usage while quad streaming?

I wish I was getting more bandwidth while streaming, but where I live the most I can get is 12 Mbps and the highest I've ever gotten at one point was 10 Mbps, but I average 7Mbps. I used http://www.speedtest.net/ to measure my speed. Can't show the results now since I am at work.

 

[gunste24]

Our more or less monopolistic iSPs reliably increase prices every few months or every year, but hate to upgrade their lines to be equivalent to major and minor countries like South Korea. The only truly reliable thing about Comcast is the arrival of their bill on time and price increases. If you have a complex error message, one cannot even send it to them. Chat does not allow copy and paste, if their respondents even had the knowledge to help - their help pages are only concerned with how and where to pay your bill.
Anthing that might remotely have a negative effect on their bottom line they will object to. But they do spend substantial amounts to buy members of Congress.

 

[drnexus]

I'm not sure this is a problem of definition more than it is of names, they should keep the Broadband as "simple" internet connection, and Fiber for the next gen.

Broadband refers to a particular range of speed measurement, independent of the type of connection, whereas fiber refers to a specific type of connection, or hardware.

 

[Kibaruk]

Broadband refers to a particular range of speed measurement, independent of the type of connection, whereas fiber refers to a specific type of connection, or hardware.

Let me know when you see an ISP using the fiber infraestructure to connect users at 1mbps.