Is Virgin Media cable really broadband?

[AndyCalling]

In the US, the FCC has now defined broadband as being 1meg up and 4megs down. Since the US invented the internet they would know I'm sure (OK so we invented the web, but that's not he issue here).

This means my Dad has broadband with TalkTalk (he gets 7megs down, 1meg up, not to mention Caller Display as well, and he's on the Isle of Sheppey so hardly in the big smoke whereas I'm in the city of Southampton) at a fraction of the price I pay, but though I get 20megs down with Virgin I only get 700 odd K up (and no Caller ID either). So that means I'm now on narrowband again.

Hurry up Virgin, I pay for the 'Mother of all broadband'. I thought that meant fast, but it turns out it really meant narrowband, the actual ancestor of real broadband!

Since I get constant full speed out of my connection, and I'm on narrowband, I feel really sorry for those with oversubscription issues. Some of you guys seem to get barely better than an acoustic coupler might achieve...

...so I suppose I should really be grateful to get narrowband at all.

[Hom3r]

It from the US ignore it.

10Mb+ is Broadband, possibly lower.

[AndyCalling]

Originally Posted by Hom3r

It from the US ignore it.

10Mb+ is Broadband, possibly lower.

Well my upstream is certainly not 10meg! That's a trial going on for a very few I believe.

When one has to measure speed in kilobits rather than megabits I think the arguement to classify such as narrowband is strong. It's slow even in the UK.

I would think it strange to suggest the country that invented the internet doesn't know what broadband is. I'm sure they have a pretty good idea, they have defined all the other basic internet standards we use after all. I can't see how your definition (or Virgin's for that matter) could compete for either gravity or authority. Frankly, even a UK government definition would come a very poor second best if it exists. Perhaps we'd better stick with the 'Mother of all broadband' on this one (as Virgin would say), and that would clearly be Uncle Sam.

[vanman]

Britons are not getting the broadband services they are being sold, research by the regulator Ofcom suggests.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-10760069

Originally Posted by AndyCalling

In the US, the FCC has now defined broadband as being 1meg up and 4megs down. Since the US invented the internet they would know I'm sure (OK so we invented the web, but that's not he issue here).

Vint Cerf co-developed TCP/IP while he was at Stanford, before he joined DARPA. The US Government may well have sponsored development of the world's first packet-switching network, but to claim 'The US invented the Internet' is overblowing it just a little bit.

And to suggest that a US communications regulator has the last word on what constitutes broadband, just because the protocols that make the internet possible were devised in the US more than 30 years ago, is also pushing it a bit far.

Many cable broadband users may wish the upload was better, but while they're waiting for VM to do something about it, they should be in no doubt that they are still getting a broadband service.

[AndyCalling]

Well, I'm not so sure. We now have to be careful when buying an new US product that states you need a broadband internet connection as a minimum requirement. That means many games, as they will now be working to a 1meg upstream standard.

By the way, I believe the internet network was first brought online by the US military. They obviously built their invention on the science and technology that came before but the internet itself was surely then invented in the US. I may be wrong in my assumptions, perhaps the internet network was activated first somewhere else but that's not the common story.

The US invented the nuclear bomb, using foreign scientists and even more foreign science and technology. A number of countries had all the pieces of the puzzle. The US did first put them all together though. It would be far easier to say the US didn't invent the nuclear bomb than the internet, the arguement is stronger, but when the US pressed their point by dropping them on Japan the rest of the world found their arguement fairly convincing I am told.

Vanman, there's no point posting diagrams of downstream speeds. The point of the US definition is that it seeks to stop providers disguising a slow upstream with a fast downstream, which is exactly what VM does. It is a good aim and a weighty arguement in favour of the definition. How much can you take away from a chair before it's not a chair anymore? I suggest you can't remove two of the legs and then claim it still meets the definition because half of it is still good.

Originally Posted by AndyCalling

Well, I'm not so sure. We now have to be careful when buying an new US product that states you need a broadband internet connection as a minimum requirement. That means many games, as they will now be working to a 1meg upstream standard.

I don't think that's very likely. The major manufacturs are aware of the international nature of their markets. And some of the best games aren't even made in the US, they're made in Dundee.

[AndyCalling]

Originally Posted by Chris

I don't think that's very likely. The major manufacturs are aware of the international nature of their markets. And some of the best games aren't even made in the US, they're made in Dundee.

Good point, though I wouldn't trust the US to be overly wary of laying down friendly fire.
Microsoft, for example, has never felt the need to take the slightest bit of notice of the ISO unless Microsoft are trying to break something.

the UK does a lot of the actual games programming stuff (as does the US, mind), and I suspect the DVDs they come on were finally pressed in China, but I'll bet you'll find it's the money-end that decides what gets done and to what standards. That would be the US.