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Net neutrality is a double-edged sword for small ISPs
"I have a love-hate relationship with Title II," Tyler Booth told Engadget. Booth is the president of Portland, Oregon-based ISP Stephouse Networks. His company serves more than 1,000 people in a 500 square-mile area, many who wouldn't have broadband access because Comcast often doesn't offer service in rural communities. DSL is available from CenturyLink, but many get unusable speeds because of their distance from the central office. For Booth, classifying broadband as a utility under Title II means he can compete with established providers and his customers get better service as a result. But it also means the government can dictate how he earns a living. "I'm, in principle, for net neutrality and everything it stands for. But when somebody creates regulations that have a direct impact on the costs and finances of my business, I don't really support that."
Qualcomm chip promises phone data that's faster than fiber
Just because true 5G wireless is edging closer doesn't mean that 4G's peak speeds can't improve in the meantime. Qualcomm has unveiled a new LTE modem, the Snapdragon X20, that promises 1.2Gbps download speeds on mobile devices. That's 20 percent faster than the company's previous best, and enough to make even landline services like Google Fiber seem a bit pokey. The X20 manages the feat through more aggressive carrier aggregation (which bonds carrier frequency ranges) that lets it download 12 unique data streams of up to 100Mbps each. Upload speeds are healthy, too, at 150Mbps.
