FCC Says Broadband Getting Faster, But DSL Still Sluggish

Yesterday the Federal Communications Commission released its fourth annual report, addressing how well broadband providers are fulfilling their marketing promises. The FCC examined performance of 14 Internet service providers last September, during the busiest hours - weeknights from 7 P.M. to 11 P.M. According to the report, most major internet service providers still aren't giving their customers the speeds they're paying for.

The leading cable companies performed especially well in speed tests, with Cablevision Systems Corp. and Comcast Corp. consistently delivering speeds close to or in excess of their advertised speeds. Senior FCC officials said the DSL providers appeared to be overpromising in their advertised speeds, and failing to perform as well as cable and fiber networks. The officials said in general, DSL speeds can't compete with the other two.

Verizon DSL subscribers' average download speed was just 83% of the advertised speed, down from 88% last year. The download speeds of Frontier DSL users and Windstream DSL subscribers was 86% of the advertised speed, while CenturyLink offered users actual download speeds of 89% of the promised speed.

"Consumers deserve to get what they pay for. While it's encouraging to see that in the past these reports have encouraged providers to improve their services, I'm concerned that some providers are failing to deliver consistent speeds to consumers that are commensurate to their advertised speeds," FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said. "As a result, I've directed FCC staff to write to the underperforming companies to ask why this happened and what they will do to solve this," he said.

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