FCC proposes higher speed goals (100/20 Mbps) for USF providers

Mon Jun 6 14:31:13 UTC 2022

On Mon Jun 06, 2022 at 08:06:50AM -0500, Mike Hammett wrote:
> "So what happens if the Next Big Thing..." 

I find it sad that so many would argue for never needing anything
more than we have today. It's like why did we bother coming out of
the trees, or the oceans even (yes Apple digital watches are a pretty
neat idea).

The non fibre installations we have today, while working for some,
totally fail to provide the same to everyone. While fixing that
globally should be a priority it should not be done in a manner
that will require it all doing again in 10 years.

Building in some headroom for growth makes sense, we're not talking
lots it's only 10x ish to do gigabit ish, so within error margin.

> I see this said a lot, but it doesn't really mean anything. We
> are sufficiently close to whatever is likely to come that it
> can come and bandwidths will have to catch up upon its launch.

If we had moved to fibre everywhere then perhaps, but until
then we face many decades trying to get that done. So if
something comes up we may be stuck waiting. Stuff always
comes up.

When I started the BBC streaming we were told not to bother by
ISPs, the quality was rubbish, the network couldn't handle it and
never will. I did it anyway and the net grew but it was a long
slow process with lots of screaming. It'd be nice to not have to
wait so long next time because people want to deploy more legacy.

> If we're not that close, then it's unrealistic to pre-build
> capacity for imaginary developments that never come. 

If you build it they will come. People are more likely to
invest in making things if they see a realistic timescale
to deployment. If they also have to upgrade everyones home
too they are less likely to bother.

brandon