Analysis of broadband affordability deemed “extraneous” by FCC chair.
The Federal Communications Commission is ditching Biden-era standards for measuring progress toward the goal of universal broadband deployment.
The changes will make it easier for the FCC to give the broadband industry a passing grade in an annual progress report. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s proposal would give the industry a thumbs-up even if it falls short of 100 percent deployment, eliminate a long-term goal of gigabit broadband speeds, and abandon a new effort to track the affordability of broadband.
Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act requires the FCC to determine whether broadband is being deployed “on a reasonable and timely basis” to all Americans. If the answer is no, the US law says the FCC must “take immediate action to accelerate deployment of such capability by removing barriers to infrastructure investment and by promoting competition in the telecommunications market.”
Starlink is only ‘better’ (in some cases, certainly isn’t better in all nor at all times as its speed is highly variable), because your US cable and ISP giants have lobbied for decades to remove any oversight the FCC may exert on them - up to and including banning local communities from building their own networks, and ensuring that they have more or less monopoly control in many rural markets.
The only way to fix this is with the hammer of the FCC regulation. The ‘free market’ cannot fix a monopoly.
So when you laugh at your rural citizenry getting shafted by FCC policy changes that will benefit nobody but the large ISPs & cable companies, because you’re in a city and have lots of optiond with the competition that high-density living affords, you’re shooting your own regulatory powers in the foot for the sake of spite.
This is all setting aside of course than a huge proportion of rural Americans are not MAGA.
So yeah that’s why it’s a crappy take.
I never said Starlink is in any way better than all ISPs or even infrastructure types, but it’s undeniable that Starlink is the best internet solution for millions of Americans, no doubt millions of others globally. I personally know dozens of ‘salt of the Earth’ types that only had access to traditional satellite internet. Abysmal bandwidth with laughable latency and criminal data caps.
I’m 100% in agreement that governance has allowed and even encouraged cable/ISPs to run cartels and run rackets. If Starlink can offer the better service they should get all the customers and the ISPs companies can pound sand.
As for the rural dipshits, they don’t need you to white knight for them. Their stupidity should be palpable so they have the stimuli to encourage reflection.
Yeah keep moving the goalposts, I never claimed you said Starlink was better than all ISPs I simply clarified ‘better’. I’m white-knighting for the rural users now? No I’m pointing out how stupid it is to cheer for the regulators that are supposed to work for you instead shitting on you, because the corporations have lobbied them to and a very corporation-friendly government is in power.
Your response: cheer for the big corporate ISP (what do you think Starlink is exactly)? Gtfoh.
🤣 I just can’t take you serious. What goalpost? Am I supposed to know what ‘better’ means outside of using objective metrics? I’m hardly cheering for broadband standards to fall, but relishing in a bit of schadenfreude.
Apparently I didn’t make myself clear way earlier in this thread when I said ALL the stakeholders of these telecom companies are parasites sucking off the hard work of their subordinates. They’re vile oligarchic demons looking to squeeze every cent they can. Fascism is just the flavor of the week.