nanog mailing list archives

Re: New minimum speed for US broadband connections


From: Michael Thomas <mike () mtcc com>
Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2022 13:46:59 -0800


On 2/16/22 1:36 PM, Josh Luthman wrote:
What is the embarrassment?

That in the tech center of the world that we're so embarrassingly behind the times with broadband. I'm going to get fiber in the rural Sierra Nevada before Silicon Valley. In fact, I already have it, they just haven't installed the NID.

Mike



On Wed, Feb 16, 2022 at 4:28 PM Michael Thomas <mike () mtcc com> wrote:


    On 2/16/22 1:13 PM, Josh Luthman wrote:
    I'll once again please ask for specific examples as I continue to
    see the generic "it isn't in some parts of San Jose".

    On the note of the generic area of San Jose, I'm all but certain
    this has a lot to do with California and its extraordinarily
    complicated and near impossible accessibility to obtain CLEC
    status.  This makes competition pretty much impossible and makes
    the costs of operating one extraordinarily high.  I'm obviously
    not going to be one that claims that government is good or bad,
    just pointing out a certain correlation which could potentially
    be causation.

    Sonic has been installing fiber in San Francisco and other areas,
    but they are really small. Comcast can't be bothered that I've
    ever heard. The only other real alternative is things like
    Monkeybrains which is a WISP. It's really an embarrassment.

    Mike


    On Wed, Feb 16, 2022 at 12:52 PM Owen DeLong <owen () delong com> wrote:



        On Feb 11, 2022, at 13:14 , Josh Luthman
        <josh () imaginenetworksllc com> wrote:

        Because literally every case I've seen along these lines is
        someone complaining about the coax connection is "only 100
        meg when I pay for 200 meg". Comcast was the most hated
        company and yet they factually had better speeds (possibly
        in part to their subjectively terrible customer service) for
        years.

        >An apartment building could have cheap 1G fiber and the
        houses across the street have no option but slow DSL.

        Where is this example?  Or is this strictly hypothetical?

        There are literally dozens (if not thousands) of such
        examples in silicon valley alone.

        I am not seeing any examples, anywhere, with accurate data,
        where it's what most consider to be in town/urban and poor
        speeds.  The only one that was close was Jared and I'm
        pretty sure when I saw the map I wouldn't consider that in
        town (could be wrong) but again, there's gig fiber there
        now.  I don't remember if he actually got his CLEC, or why
        that matters, but there's fiber there now.

        Pretty sure you would have a hard time calling San Jose “not
        in town”. It’s literally #11 in the largest 200 cities in the
        US with a population of 1,003,120 (954,940 in the 2010
        census) and a population density of 5,642 people/sq. mile
        (compare to #4 Houston, TX at 3,632/Sq. Mi.).

        Similar conditions exist in parts of Los Angeles, #2 on the
        same list at 3,985,516 (3,795,512 in 2010 census) and
        8,499/Sq. Mi.

        I speak of California because it’s where I have the most
        information. I’m sure this situation exists in other states
        as well, but I don’t have actual data.

        The simple reality is that there are three sets of incentives
        that utilities tend to chase and neither of them provides for
        the mezzo-urban and sub-urban parts of America…
        1.USF — Mostly supports rural deployments.
        2.Extreme High Density — High-Rise apartments in dense
        arrays, Not areas of town houses, smaller apartment
        complexes, or single family dwellings.
        3.Neighborhoods full of McMansions — Mostly built very
        recently and where the developers would literally pay the
        utilities to pre-deploy in order to boost sales prices.

        Outside of those incentives, there’s very little actual
        deployment of broadband improvements, leaving vast quantities
        of average Americans underserved.

        Owen




        On Fri, Feb 11, 2022 at 4:05 PM Brandon Svec via NANOG
        <nanog () nanog org> wrote:

            What is the point of these anecdotes? Surely anyone on
            this list with even a passing knowledge of the broadband
            landscape in the United States knows how hit or miss it
            can be.  An apartment building could have cheap 1G fiber
            and the houses across the street have no option but slow
            DSL.  Houses could have reliable high speed cable
            internet, but the office park across the field has no
            such choice because the buildout cost is prohibitively
            high to get fiber, etc.

            There are plenty of places with only one or two choices
            of provider too.  Of course, this is literally changing
            by the minute as new services are continually being
            added and upgraded.
            *Brandon Svec*



            On Fri, Feb 11, 2022 at 12:36 PM Josh Luthman
            <josh () imaginenetworksllc com> wrote:

                OK the one example you provided has gigabit fiber
                though.

                On Fri, Feb 11, 2022 at 8:41 AM Tom Beecher
                <beecher () beecher cc> wrote:

                        Can you provide examples?


                    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Twe6uTwOyJo&ab_channel=NANOG
                    <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Twe6uTwOyJo&ab_channel=NANOG>

                    Our good friend Jared could only get 1.5M DSL
                    living just outside Ann Arbor, MI, so he had to
                    start his own CLEC.

                    I have friends in significantly more rural areas
                    than he lives in ( Niagara and Orleans county
                    NYS , between Niagara Falls and Rochester ) who
                    have the same 400Mb package from Spectrum that I
                    do, living in the City of Niagara Falls.

                    This is not to say that rural America is a mecca
                    of connectivity; there is a long way to go all
                    the way around regardless. But it is a direct
                    example as you asked for.

                    On Thu, Feb 10, 2022 at 3:57 PM Josh Luthman
                    <josh () imaginenetworksllc com> wrote:

                        >There are plenty of urban and suburban
                        areas in America that are far worse off from
                        a broadband perspective than “rural America”.

                        Can you provide examples?

                        On Thu, Feb 10, 2022 at 3:51 PM Owen DeLong
                        via NANOG <nanog () nanog org> wrote:



                            > On Jun 2, 2021, at 02:10 , Mark Tinka
                            <mark@tinka.africa> wrote:
                            >
                            >
                            >
                            > On 6/2/21 11:04, Owen DeLong wrote:
                            >
                            >> I disagree… If it could be forced
                            into a standardized format using a
                            standardized approach to data
                            acquisition and reliable comparable
                            results across providers, it could be a
                            very useful adjunct to real competition.
                            >
                            > If we can't even agree on what
                            "minimum speed for U.S. broadband
                            connections" actually means, fat chance
                            having a "nutritional facts" at the back
                            of the "Internet in a tea cup" dropped
                            off at your door step.
                            >
                            > I'm not saying it's not useful, I'm
                            just saying that easily goes down the
                            "what color should we use for the bike
                            shed" territory, while people in rural
                            America still have no or poor Internet
                            access.
                            >
                            > Mark.

                            ROFLMAO…

                            People in Rural America seem to be doing
                            just fine. Most of the ones I know at
                            least have GPON or better.

                            Meanwhile, here in San Jose, a city that
                            bills itself as “The Capital of Silicon
                            Valley”, the best I can get is Comcast
                            (which does finally purport to be Gig
                            down), but rarely delivers that.

                            Yes, anything involving the federal
                            government will get the full bike shed
                            treatment no matter what we do.

                            There are plenty of urban and suburban
                            areas in America that are far worse off
                            from a broadband perspective than “rural
                            America”.

                            Owen


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