Broadband Speeds Slower Than Advertised
August 18, 2010
| 10:27 AM
The FCC added more fuel to the fire over broadband regulation this week, with a paper suggesting that average residential download speeds are much slower than Internet service providers are telling their customers.
The technical paper issued Monday, under the innocuous title "Broadband Performance," says that ISPs advertise median download speeds of 7-8 Mbps, but an FCC analysis found the average actual speed consumers receive is about 4 Mbps.
"This gap is similar across technologies," the paper says. It cites a number of factors, including home computer performance and Wi-Fi setups, as contributing to the gap, but concludes that consumers have a right to be confused about what broadband providers are saying about their services.
Consumer groups are pointing to the paper as yet another reason for the FCC to strengthen its oversight of ISPs.
"In the U.S. we pay far more for slower broadband that an increasing number of nations around the world," said Benjamin Lennett, senior policy analyst for the Open Technology Initiative at the New America Foundation. "Add to that, consumers appear to rarely even get the speeds there providers advertise and it underscores the need for substantial policy intervention by the FCC."
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