
GOP Senators want lower internet speeds to qualify as broadband - gnicholas
http://arstechnica.com/business/2016/01/gop-senators-want-lower-internet-speeds-to-qualify-as-broadband/
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gnicholas
I tend to agree that 25Mbps is a high threshold for "broadband". If HD
streaming on popular services only requires 5Mbps, it seems odd to require 5x
this to qualify.

As the article points out, some families/roommates share an internet
connection—but many people live alone, and the definition should ignore this.
And even for those who share, it's pretty unlikely that there are 5 HD streams
running simultaneously. And even if this does happen sometimes—or even every
night—peak usage for multi-user setups shouldn't be used as a threshold
measure for "broadband" for all.

On the other hand, this definition will probably be with us for a while, and
in time it will become more reasonable as a threshold. Perhaps definitions
like these should be indexed in the same way that dollar thresholds are
inflation-adjusted.

