二零一零年十二月十五日
By 蒂姆Siglin 特约编辑
专题文章

一个贫穷的国家

随着假期的临近, it may be that what people really want for Christmas is a true broadband connection. 毕竟，大多数美国人.S. 宽带用户刚刚发现他们用什么来上网——无论是DSL, 电缆调制解调器, 或者固定无线——并不是真正的宽带.

在一份令人震惊的声明中 FCC的最新报告州 that 68 percent of connections within the United States do not reach the FCC's definition of broadband: 4 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload speeds.

从2009年中期开始，作为一个美国联邦通信委员会(FCC)的调查通知(NOI) 关于移动宽带, 我们八月份讲过的, 2009, has now become a widespread study on the limitations of broadband within the United States.

因为所有的关注, the FCC released a study in August 2010 that confirmed what anecdotal evidence had shown for years: advertised broadband speeds are more mirage than reality.

“美国网民体验到的实际下载速度.S. 消费者的网速比广告宣传的网速落后了大约50% 八月份宽带性能报告州. “这种差距在不同技术之间是相似的，是由多种因素造成的, 有些在其网络中供应商的控制范围内, 还有一些是由于互联网的不可预测性. 这种差距可能会引起消费者的困惑, 作为实际速度, 哪些因素在很大程度上决定了最终用户的体验, 大大落后于广告速度."

覆盖2010年8月的研究我们同意这些发现, but one of the least defensible aspects of the paper was its methodology: the report relied heavily on comScore data from only two testing locations (Reston, 维吉尼亚州, 和芝加哥, 伊利诺斯州).

值得庆幸的是, 因为它最近的研究, 联邦通信委员会花了一点时间筛选自己的477表格数据. 12月份的报告证明，广告费率非常不准确, partly by comparing advertised rates to the self-reported rates each service provider notes on its FCC Form 477.

换句话说, it appears there's a publicly-stated speed used on advertisements to entice consumers and a privately stated speed used for self-reporting. 最近的另一项研究显示，美国有五分之四的互联网用户在使用互联网.S. 无法识别他们的宽带速度, relying instead on the advertising they received from their service provider.

Noting that the Form 477 data is self-reported 信息 from the service providers, the December report reminds readers of the disconnect between advertised speeds and actual speeds.

"The reported connection speed is typically based on the advertised speed of the purchased service, such as the advertised ‘up to' speed of a wired service or the advertised range of ‘typical speeds' of a mobile wireless service,报告称, 添加, "It is possible that the purchased service will not operate at its advertised speed at all times. 在其他地方, the Commission is exploring the size and causes of differences between advertised connection speeds and the speeds experienced by consumers."

12月份的报告揭示了什么, 然后, is a much larger disconnect than originally anticipated in the August report.

在2009年底, 58%的可报告连接(或76,594,000个连接)在下行方向慢于3mbps,这份新报告指出. 12%(或16%),172,000 connections) were at least 3 Mbps in the downstream direction but slower than 6 Mbps, 30%(或40%),382,000个连接)在下行方向至少6mbps."

上传速度怎么样?? 根据报告, 美国一半的“宽带”连接速度低于768kbps, 远低于FCC对宽带的定义.

在2009年底, 49%的可报告连接(或65,942,000个连接)在上游方向上的速度低于768 KBPS,报告称. 39%(或51%),536,000 connections) were at least 768 kbps in the upstream direction but slower than 1.5mbps, 12%(或15,670,000个连接)至少是1.上行速率为5mbps."

考虑到, 然后, 58%的用户下载速度低于3mbps, as well as the almost 60 percent of users that were slower than 1 Mbps upload speeds, 很明显，美国政府正在采取行动.S. as a whole is struggling with the digital divide, even among those who think they have broadband.

在8月份的报告中, FCC analysis showed that the average (mean) actual speed consumers received was approximately 4 Mbps, 在12月的报告中已经更正了吗. 除了, while the FCC stated in August that the median actual speed in 2009 was roughly 3 Mbps, 数据速率似乎也是个问题.

One hopes that the FCC will move to a broader range of consumers to track true usage over a period of time, 通过使用 DSLreports.com and other sites that have a significant base of users reporting their experience weekly or even daily.

流媒体在这里面临的实际问题是什么? 用美国联邦通信委员会的话说, the "full multimedia" user has a need for speed above that of which a majority of U.S. 为宽带用户提供:

"The full multimedia user jumps to 4 Mbps solely on the basis of watching live SD video streams,8月份的报告指出, 将高清视频内容流速度固定在6mbps.

即使我们考虑到2点的720p.5 Mbps, there's little or no overhead for HD streaming for more than 60 percent of US "broadband" users.

We've conjectured that this lack of true broadband could spell trouble for devices like the Apple TV with its HD streaming-only approach, and it does appear that this new FCC report corroborates recent news reports of a high number of customers having trouble maintaining their connections throughout the course of a long-form movie. The reported speeds-while proving that advertised rates were much higher than reality-are still suspect as being a bit higher than reality, a trend that will continue until true broadband comes to the majority of Americans.

This report's findings also lend credence to the often-heard statement of our industry not seeing enough interest in 1080p streaming to justify competing against BluRay quality levels. 事实证明这个说法是准确的, 但这并不是因为消费者方面缺乏兴趣. 而不是, 这是因为大多数用户——无论他们是城市用户, 多租户单元(MTU)居民, 或者郊区的足球妈妈们——一开始就没有宽带连接.

One hopes the FCC's move to define broadband as 4 Mbps download / 1 Mbps upload will come with some teeth, 在广告中强加真理. It can't come too soon: just yesterday I received a flyer in the mail from CenturyLink (the company that acquired Embarq, 它的前身是Sprint)以29美元的价格为我提供超高速宽带.每月95英镑.

Reading the fine print, though, CenturyLink was defining broadband as 768 kbps download speeds. And the phone companies wonder why everyone who has a choice is moving from DSL to cable, with hopes of at least watching a few YouTube videos without excessive download times.