Senators Whine About FCC's 25 Mbps Broadband Standard, Insist Nobody Needs That Much Bandwidth

Just about a year ago, the FCC voted to raise the base definition of broadband from 4 Mbps downstream, 1 Mbps upstream -- to 25 Mbps downstream, 3 Mbps upstream. This, of course, annoyed the nation's mega providers, since the higher standard highlights the lack of competition and next-generation upgrades in countless markets. It especially annoyed the nation's phone companies, given that the expensive, sub-6 Mbps DSL foisted upon millions of customers can no longer even technically be called broadband.

Fast forward a year and the broadband providers' favorite politicians in the House are still whining about the improved definition. In a letter sent to the FCC last week (pdf), the six senators complained that the FCC is on a mad power grab, using a crazy and arbitrary new definition to saddle broadband providers with all manner of onerous regulations. Besides, argued the six Senators, 25 Mbps is more than any American consumer could ever possibly need:

"Looking at the market for broadband applications, we are aware of few applications that require download speeds of 25 Mbps. Netflix, for example, recommends a download speed of 5 Mbps to receive high-definition streaming video, and Amazon recommends a speed of 3.5 Mbps. In addition, according to the FCC's own data, the majority of Americans who can purchase 25 Mbps choose not to."​

Focusing on the fact that a single Netflix stream eats just 3.5 to 5 Mbps ignores the fact that broadband connections serve an entire house of hungry users, many of whom will be gobbling significantly more bandwidth using any number of services and connected devices. It's also worth pointing out that a single Netflix Ultra HD stream can eat 25 Mbps all by itself. And on the upstream side of the equation, the FCC's definition of 3 Mbps remains relatively last-generation and arguably pathetic. Similarly, many consumers may not buy 25 Mbps because the lack of competition can result in high prices for faster tiers.

In other words, claiming 25 Mbps is some kind of "arbitrary," pie-in-the-sky standard is absurd.

Of course, the Senators don't really care about technical specifics, they're just blindly echoing the broadband industry's annoyance that the FCC is now actually highlighting the lack of broadband competition in the market. They're specifically bothered by this recent FCC study, which notes that two-thirds of U.S. households lack the choice of more than one ISP at speeds of 25 Mbps or greater. Companies like AT&T and Verizon also don't like how this data highlights the fact they're giving up on rural America and many second- and third-tier cities, freezing broadband deployments and in some cases even refusing to repair aging infrastructure.

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/2...insist-nobody-needs-that-much-bandwidth.shtml

 

A single UHD stream from Netflix is 15.6mbits.

The guy who wrote the article is a clown.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadband

In telecommunications, broadband is a wide bandwidth data transmission with an ability to simultaneously transport multiple signals and traffic types. The medium can be coaxial cable, optical fiber, radio or twisted pair.

In the context of Internet access broadband is used much more loosely to mean any high-speed Internet access that is always on and faster than traditional dial-up access.

 

Always on.

 

So 25Mbps is a good thing.

 

"It's also worth pointing out that a single Netflix Ultra HD stream can eat 25 Mbps all by itself."

He's just wrong.

15.6mbit

https://technology.ihs.com/496648/netflix-goes-ultra-high-definition

With four times as many pixels, Netflix’s UHD video needs four times as much space to transmit the same video stream. What is typically shown for broadcast TV is 1080i50/60, Full HD video at 50 or 60 interlaced (half) frames per second. UHD is going to start with 2160p25/30, which means UHD resolution with 25 or 30 full frames (progressive scan). The resulting image is therefore just 4 times as much video, with a slightly different frame cadence. Netflix’s top tier HD stream is 5.8 Mbps at 1080p30, while UHD will be streamed at 15.6 Mbps. In order to achieve higher quality when the required bandwidth is otherwise four times higher, Netflix have utilised HEVC, which is approximately twice as efficient as the h.264/MPEG-4 used for its HD stream.

bitrate is not the be all/end all. Compression rates have doubled about every 5 years. MPEG 2 -> MPEG 4 -> HEVC.

A 10mbit HEVC stream buries a 10mbit MPEG 2 one. 4x better picture.

 

http://www.increasebroadbandspeed.co.uk/2012/graph-ADSL-speed-versus-distance

DSL is 24mbit download speed, but that depends on the distance from the home to the central office.

To provide 25 mbit would cost AT&T, Verizon, and any other phone company with copper infrastructure $billions and $billions of upgrades.

 

So you agree with the senators, no one needs 25mbs.

 

Netflix says 25mbits.

https://help.netflix.com/en/node/13444


He got his number from Netflix.

 

Some people do. Most people don't. Those who do generally have it and pay for it.

 

The bitrate is 15.6mbits.

25 is good if you have 2 TVs streaming. Or one streaming and a LOT of other stuff going on at the same time.

You were over your head with the "my modem can't be hacked" argument and you're over your head here, too

 

http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/news/4k-streaming-201404063713.htm

So how does it look? You can’t cheat the physics of compression, especially given Netflix’s 4K streaming bitrate of 15.6 Mbps which is lower than that of well-transferred Blu-rays, albeit using the more efficient HEVC/h.265 codec.

http://blog.streamingmedia.com/2015/01/4k-streaming-bandwidth-problem.html

If you look at the HEVC testing that guys like Jan Ozer and Alex Zambelli have done, and look at the data Netflix has presented around their 4K encoding (Netflix’s current bitrate for 4K is 15.6Mbps), the bitrates won’t get down to 10-12Mbps anytime soon.

https://gigaom.com/2014/01/06/netflix-4k-ultra-hd-3d/

The company’s 4K content will stream with a bit rate of 15.6 Mbps. Currently, Netflix’s best-looking content streams with as much as 7 Mbps. However, devices that support 4K will use H.265 HEVC for regular HD content as well, which will actually save bandwidth for that kind of content.

"15.6, 15.6, 15.6"

It's 15.6.

 

You just get weird with this stuff.

You said the guy who wrote the article is wrong but Netflix says the exact same number.

And you're wrong about the modem thing. We were talking about routers. Yes, you can have a router and modem in one device but I do not. I have a separate modem that I own plugged into my router that I own. I lease noting from Comcast. And that is more secure.

 

It's the same as watching the same TV channel on more than one TV in the house.

 

Again, from Netflix's website on what they say you need to watch Ultra HD.

 

Netflix says 10mbits more than you need because it works for sure. They don't want people calling and complaining about poor picture quality if the ISP is slammed from delivering netflix to too many people at once.

Your cable company can turn up your bandwidth to 25mbit or down to 5mbit from their office. If they can talk to your modem to change the bandwidth, so can hackers. Your belief in your security is not well founded.

If you care to do the research, the technology is DOCSIS (modem control) and they use TFTP to download a file into the modem to configure it. A hacker can TFTP malware into the modem if they cared to.

 

https://help.netflix.com/en/node/306



RECOMMENDED, not REQUIRED.

Now move along.