Do You Know Your Broadband Speed?

"Most Consumers Unaware of Broadband Speed", by Amy Schatz. Wall Street Journal, Vol CCLV, No. 127, p. B4, 02 June 2010.

A survey by the Federal Communications Commission indicates that most consumers are not aware of exactly what their broadband speeds are. Even not knowing what the speeds are, nine out of ten surveyed indicated they were happy with their speeds.

I do not fall into that 9 out of 10. I do know what speeds I am getting and I am not happy. The fastest speed I can buy via AT&T right now is 3 Mb. I usually only realize a speed of about 2.5 Mb and sometimes less than that. Of course AT&T has their own specification of what those speeds really mean within tolerances, whether you like those tolerances or not.

The real question though is are American's getting what they are paying for? Another question would be, are we paying too much for what we are getting. The Internet has become ubiquitous on our lives and I would much rather lose voice comms than I would electronic comms. Perhaps it is time for the FCC to rethink the whole communications paradigm.