New FCC Broadband Rules

Via: The Washington Post and Digital Trends


The FCC has proposed redefining the term "Broadband".

Currently, ISP companies have to supply 4 Mps download and 1 Mps to meet that definition.  The FCC has proposed altering that to 10 Mps or even 25 Mps.


There are people rejoicing about this online because it will force ISP companies to spend money on infrastructure.

Think about that for a minute.  Do you really think it's a good idea for the Federal Government to have the ability to force American companies to spend billions of dollars?

And it gets worse when you realize that this is being done to benefit two companies: Google and Netflix.

The Government imposing a burden on one company in order to provide a beneficial result to another company is not what is supposed to happen in a free society.


Netflix and Google (through YouTube) combined account for up to 40% of current Internet companies.  They are the ones that need the additional bandwidth, but instead of paying for it themselves they have gone to the Government and apparently found a way to force other companies to pay for the infrastructure they need for their businesses.

Getting the Government to force other companies to pay for your business expenses is nice work, if you can get it.


It gets worse when you realize that Google is not just a content provider.  It is an ISP itself, and in direct competition with the companies hit by this regulation.  The new rules would not affect Google as an ISP provider largely due to the nature of its Internet Service.  It only provides service in a few small areas with high population densities.

Why does that matter?  Well as someone pointed out in the Washington Post comment section, there is a big difference to providing Internet service to an area with dense and sparse populations.

The average connection speed in South Korea is 50 Mps.  Roughly 5 times that in the U.S.  South Korea has a population on 20 Million people in an area the size of Wyoming. 

Wyoming's Population is just over 500,000.  When you break it down on a population basis, the Infrastructure needed to provide service to Wyoming is 40 times as expensive as it is to provide the same service to South Korea.

An ISP could provide 50 Mps service in Wyoming.  It would just have to charge 40 times as much as those in South Korea to do so.


This brings us back to Google and its "Internet Service".

Google Fiber is only available in 2 cities right now and one of those helped with financing.  The exact amount of aid from Kansas City is unknown, but it runs into the millions. 

Other ISPs have to pay 3%-5% of subscription revenues from customers.  Google got a waiver.  Other ISPs cannot put their wires on municipal utility poles.  Google was allowed to do so free of charge.  Kansas City also agreed to provide electricity and space for Google's equipment, free of charge.


Now Google has gone to the FCC and apparently gotten it to force other ISPs to pay for the Infrastructure Google wants to use as a content provider.  How much help do you think they will get from Government? 


Google has perfected getting someone else to pay for its business expenses.  When the Government is involved it's called "Corporate Welfare."