Ajit Pai Isn't Saying Whether ISPs Deliver the Broadband Speeds You Pay For

An anonymous reader shares a report from Ars Technica, written by Jon Brodkin: Nearly two years have passed since the Federal Communications Commission reported on whether broadband customers are getting the Internet speeds they pay for. In 2011, the Obama-era FCC began measuring broadband speeds in nearly 7,000 consumer homes as part of the then-new Measuring Broadband America program. Each year from 2011 to 2016, the FCC released an annual report comparing the actual speeds customers received to the advertised speeds customers were promised by Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Verizon, AT&T, and other large ISPs. But the FCC hasn't released any new Measuring Broadband America reports since Republican Ajit Pai became the commission chairman in January 2017. Pai's first year as chair was the first time the FCC failed to issue a new Measuring Broadband America report since the program started -- though the FCC could release a new report before his second year as chair is complete.

For more than three months, Ars has been trying to find out whether the FCC is still analyzing Measuring Broadband America data and whether the FCC plans to release any more measurement reports. SamKnows, the measurement company used by the FCC for this program, told Ars that Measuring Broadband America is still active and that a new report is forthcoming, hopefully next month. But whether the report is released is up to the FCC, and Chairman Pai's public relations office has ignored our questions about the program. Because of Pai's office's silence, we filed a Freedom of Information Act (FoIA) request on August 13 for internal emails about the Measuring Broadband America program and for broadband speed measurement data since January 2017. By law, the FCC and other federal agencies have 20 business days to respond to public records requests. The FCC has denied Ars' request for "expedited processing," which "was warranted because the broadband measuring data is out of data, depriving American consumers of crucial information when they purchase broadband access," writes Brodkin. The FCC said, "we are not persuaded that the records you request are so urgent that our normal process will not provide them in a timely manner."

Why would you expect the FCC to?

[jd]

They're happy with the under the table funding from the ISPs, no sense in stirring up trouble.

Besides, we all know that we're getting between a third to a tenth of what we pay for. Only municipal Internet does better in America, which is why the private companies keep trying to ban it.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Well yeah... He was hired as a mouthpiece. He's doing his job!

And here we are, just lollygaggin' along, voting for the same old shit every two years...

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Among all the advocates of "diversity" not a single one can tell me what measurable benefit it is.

Ooh! Ooh! I can! I'm an advocate of diversity, and I can definitely tell you a measurable benefit: it really pisses off all you pathetic little bigoted dickwads! Honestly, knowing that it annoys you is worth a whole lot to the rest of us.

I hope this helps your confusion.

First Net Neutrality repeal and now this

[darth_borehd]

The FCC is sending a big FU to American citizens. This administration gets more awful all the day. When are we going to hit bottom barrell?

PAI MAN BAD

[PopeRatzo]

To be fair, it's not Ajit Pai's job to say whether or not ISPs deliver the broadband speed you pay for. His job is to pimp for the biggest telecoms and be the guy who delivers for corporate interests. The services those telecoms provide are entirely outside his purview. The sooner you learn this, the better off we'll all be. He's basically a fluffer for Comcast. I'll bet he has nice soft lips, too.

Pai is altering the deal

[chispito]

we are not persuaded that the records you request are so urgent that our normal process will not provide them in a timely manner

Pray he doesn't alter it any further.

Re:

[farble1670]

Excellent comrade. You have earned an extra 1.5oz of Vodka this shift.

Re:

[TheGratefulNet]

correct spelling is actually vodak

(obscure?)

Re:

[serviscope_minor]

Excellent comrade. You have earned an extra 1.5oz of Vodka this shift.

Point of order: Russia is on the metric system.

Re:

[Narcocide]

You know you can make more money at a helpdesk call center than doing this bullshit astro-turfing for them, right?

Mirror, Pot, Kettle, whatever.

[SuperKendall]

you can make more money at a helpdesk call center than doing this bullshit astro-turfing

I would point out the same thing to you.

I'm just working away at real work, shaking my head at you idiot activists trying as hard as you can to meet the quota your Russian masters have set for you. Man, I do not envy you the issues with failure you must have, so I understand how hard you push!

Me, the worst I have to worry about is a bad code review, but luckily I'm awesome so it never comes to that.

If you need me to con

For all its problems, NBN speeds in Australia

[prowler1]

In Australia, NBN provider speeds are reported to the public.

https://www.accc.gov.au/media-... [accc.gov.au]

Sure, the NBN rollout has not been without its problems and controversy but reports on how the various providers are scoring gets reported.

And it's updated monthly

[Namarrgon]

This is invaluable info [accc.gov.au] that customers should be more aware of - and the US should follow.

Obviously, the answer is: they're not.

[fahrbot-bot]

If they were, he (the FCC) would tell us - to make the ISPs look good - duh.

Freedom of Information Act

[Anonymous Coward]

This is where FOIA comes in handy. FCC can't release the report if it doesn't exit but the raw data have to released.

Re:

[Narcocide]

Yea, interesting how they're still not doing it though.

What a ridiculous story

[wyattstorch516]

Every ISP oversubscribes their uplinks. This has been the case since day one. The economics would not work otherwise. There is no place on earth that will dedicate 50-100 Mbps for every user all the way through.

Re:

[Actually, I do RTFA]

They could just advertise what they really offer worst case, instead of best case. We could force them to do it by law.

Re:

[Opportunist]

Then I guess advertising it as if you had it when they know well that it ain't so is simply and plainly fraud, right?

it's called future job protection

[renegade600]

Not surprising. even employees of the fcc should not burn bridges to their future job prospects. most of the top fcc officials usually end up in the industry when they leave government service.

Re:

[Opportunist]

No. Just a shit Pile.

It's already in the name.

commercial grade

[js290]

I bet they are for commercial grade connections with a contracted committed information rate (CIR). This is the solution to the net neutrality nonsense.

For the record

[nehumanuscrede]

My speeds are 250 / 10 and, with rare exceptions, I actually do see these speeds.
I would say, 99% of the time I typically see the speeds I'm supposed to see. ( Xfinity, surprisingly )

When I don't, there is usually an outage of some sort that is impacting the area.
( Last one some idiot in a truck wiped out a gas line, which caught fire, which melted the pole carrying the fiber :| )

Though, my example is probably the exception and certainly not the norm for most.

without net neutrality, they don't

[RhettLivingston]

I have Spectrum and am finding that my speeds for streaming are going up dramatically (triple or more) when I stream through a VPN. This is while always measuring the 100 MB speed I pay for or a touch more when running any speed checking service. So we have entered an age where it is useless to say you have a 100 MB connection without saying what data type you're getting that speed with.

Re: Lets call a duck a duck

[CoolDiscoRex]

We know, but the 10% get what the 90% will accept. Vote corporate corruption or throw your vote away, the tell them, and they buy it. Democracy is government by people with an average IQ of 98. We canâ(TM)t expect much better.

Comcast Doubled My Speed!

[CoolDiscoRex]

Then hit me with a data cap thatâ(TM)s the same as those paying for 1/10th the speed. At least Iâ(TM)ll hit my cap sooner than they will, though! Suckers!

Ajit Pai

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

The best thing Ajit Pai could do is fall down a long flight of concrete steps.

Just Tell Me When He Is In Jail

[HannethCom]

Under oath he has said that the FCC cannot control ISP throttling of speed under the Internet's current classification. He has also claimed under oath that they can control it by not allowing individual states to impose their own rules.
Ajit Pai has committed Perjury. Though with the shambles the US court system is in, I doubt the court will do anything about his lying.