Redefining Broadband

The House is currently looking at just how messed up the current data the FCC has is. In a hearing that opened today, Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) stated that he'd like to see the US be able to get closer to countries like Japan that are aple to offer significantly faster speeds for the same amount of money. Ars Techica reports on the issue in more detail.
One of the ideas proposed is to reclassify broadband as being anything above 2 Mbps instead of the current 200 Kbps. This would make a significant number of broadband offerings (most notably the majority of DSL) no longer broadband. The thought is that this would incentivize the providers to boost speeds in order to still be able to call their service broadband. Some providers argue, though, that in certain areas they are not able to provide speeds that high, and this would be unfair. Personally, I just say too bad.
Another thing is that the FCC currently counts a ZIP code as having broadband even if there is only one person in the entire ZIP that has it. This is something that I've been wishing they'd change for a long time. It makes no sense to say that a whole area has broadband based on just one person. If we're going to start using this kind of system, lets start just looking at one person to determine everything about a ZIP code. That makes sense, right? Idiots.