The US Federal Communications Commission has asked consumers and industry players to help it come up with a definition of 'broadband'. The input will be used to develop the government's national broadband policy, including awarding the billions of dollars in promised subsidies for taking broadband to rural and underserved areas. To date, in the US and most other places, broadband is measured by the download speed. Consumers in most countries have realised that this isn't always the actual speed they receive. As the gap between advertised and real speeds increases, so does customer dissatisfaction. This has driven the debate over how to better define broadband, including the possibility of moving from measuring in maximum speed to what actually is achievable with the broadband connection.
Internet service providers underline that what's actually achievable depends on several factors, and not just the packet of data and the maximum speed of the subscription. Various network parts, including the quality of the line, the distance from the exchange and the quality of the modem, determine the real speed of the service. Even the time of day can affect the speed, and in the case of cable, whether the neighbours are online. The last factor, the overload on the network, is linked to a basic business decision by telecom operators. They plan backbone capacity based on average use, but there are always instances when an unexpected surge in demand occurs, leading to slower services.
So if the maximum speed tells us little and giving an average speed is difficult from a technical perspective, what other moethods are there for measuring the speed of broadband? One solution could be to give the maximum as well as the expected minimum speed. The minimum speed would have to be achievable in the large majority of cases. Tele2 recently told Telecompaper at the launch of its VDSL service that the Fiberspeed-branded service would offer a maximum 60 Mbps and an expected minimum of 35 Mbps. However, initially there is always the risk that even this promise of a minimum speed can't be met. Google has said it's not about what broadband is, but what you can do with it. But this is also a very subjective view, as who determines what you do with broadband? Some people use their connection more intensively than others, leading to all sorts of differences. Google also points out correctly that it's not just about download speed, but also the upload speed.
An easy answer is not obvious. A real option is for the consumer to take the opportunity to test the quality of the line. The Swedish regulator already offers a service on its website for users to test their broadband connection, as well as compare prices and speeds at providers. Alternatively, consumers can refer to the market studies on broadband speeds by regulators such as the UK's Ofcom or market researchers such as iPing, which studies broadband speeds in the Netherlands with Telecompaper. This research showed that only half the advertised speed was achievable, while the difference between real and advertised speeds was smaller with cable broadband.
What's essential is giving consumers the ability to check for themselves what's possible and allowing them to change service provider without all too much hassle. Governments can help by making ISPs provide consumers with a suitable speed check (such as ww.numion.com) and an easy way to cancel their susbcriptions.
