FCC Asks Public to Use Its Internet Speed Test App

Brian_B said:
I think my biggest hangup is that use of this app more or less condones Cellular being classified as "Broadband".

Sure, it's internet service. But if it's significantly capped, it hardly should be considered broadband.

There's more than just peak speed to consider. Latency and data caps play a huge role in how useful a service is.
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I think the problem is that "broadband" is a meaningless term. Sure, the FCC tried to define it, but even so, I consider it not to be a technical term.
 
Zarathustra said:
I think the problem is that "broadband" is a meaningless term. Sure, the FCC tried to define it, but even so, I consider it not to be a technical term.
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There was a time I would've argued that but it most definitely has become as such. I'm constantly explaining to folks that these days it can mean any speed from just above dial up to things they can't imagine and never get caught up on the word for any real relevance.
 
I mean, just like I can get by using very little mobile data, it doesn't take a whole lot of bandwidth to 'internet'. Even gaming, if you're patient with download speeds (or queue them up overnight).

Reality is, if you can stream 4k video reasonably and still have bandwidth left for odds and ends to work without adding noticeable latency on top, you have 'good enough' internet for most consumer use. Faster helps with certain things and that's nice, of course.
 
I had AOL for years. Like many got into because of all the discs they sent. Really learned to hate them. Had autopay on and they were anything but conisistent with billing and helped bounce a lot of checks when I was younger. First and last autopay I'll ever do. Always wondered how they measured their bandwidth too. Told me I was getting 28/56k but I was lucky if I saw more than 3k. Dark days I tell ya.
 
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