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American Internet users generally receive the download speeds that companies advertise, with fiber and satellite connections frequently outperforming expectations, according to a new report from the Federal Communications Commission.

The study, conducted last September, found most companies offer download speeds during peak periods that roughly match what they advertise. Verizon’s fiber connection, the company's fastest, averaged download speeds that were 118% of advertised download rates. Cablevision Systems came in at 115% and Comcast delivered 103%, the report found. ViaSat, which offers broadband via satellite, offered connections at rates usually slower than those of land-based Internet companies. But the California-based company still delivered download speeds at 137% of that advertised. The report, issued periodically by regulators, comes as Americans try to satisfy their ever-increasing thirst for bandwidth to watch streaming videos and full-length-movies online. The report found that more Internet users are signing up for faster and generally more-expensive speed tiers from Internet companies.

[Commentary] In the absence of action by Congress, President Obama has just issued an executive order intended to help the private sector defend against cyberattacks by China and others. But discussions with China itself have gone nowhere. The time is ripe for something stronger.

In an interview with reporters before leaving office, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said that the United States must make it clear to Beijing that there will be consequences for unbridled hacking. The United States could begin to speak more firmly to China’s leadership about the problem, perhaps threatening to deny visas or expel those found to be involved in economic espionage. If a little pressure does not succeed, the United States could ponder more aggressive options, such as whether to launch offensive cyber-assaults to preemptively disarm adversaries. That would be delicate and risky. As Ms. Clinton noted, this “can become a very unwelcome and even dangerous tit-for-tat that could be a crescendo of consequences, here and around the world, that no one wants to see happen.” China is no longer the poor and isolated nation of Mao’s day. In cyberspace, it must behave like a global economic superpower and not like a petty pickpocket.

[Commentary] As the dust of the 2012 election cycle settles, voters are enjoying their increasingly brief respite from the avalanche of negative political ads that have come to define modern campaigns. Everyone knows that campaigns are too negative; candidates and consultants know it, voters know it and the data show it. Nearly everyone agrees that something must change, but the question is, what?

One key development from 2012 that has been significantly overlooked is the People’s Pledge adopted in the Massachusetts Senate race. Scott Brown and Elizabeth Warren signed the pledge in January 2012, and in doing so put in place a system of financial penalties designed to discourage media spending by outside groups. The agreement effectively banned the presence of outside television ads in the race — a development nearly unheard of in the post-Citizens United era. Given this unique exclusion of outside ads, Massachusetts provides a good case study on the impact of outside media spending on overall tone. Fewer outside ads meant fewer negative ads, and the tone of the race remained positive until much later in the cycle. Though a handful of outside groups aired broadcast ads in the race before the signing of the pledge, the next negative ad didn’t hit the airwaves until September 2012, months later than in other races. When the race did go negative, the candidates only had to respond to each other, not to the anonymous negative attacks of third-party groups and PACs. It placed a degree of accountability and respectability in the campaign that was unparalleled throughout the cycle. This is a significant accomplishment, and one that merits further consideration as we move toward 2014.

[Steve Rosenthal is a former AFL-CIO political director, founder and CEO of America Coming Together and currently president of the Atlas Project and the Organizing Group. Karyn Bruggeman is a political analyst at the Atlas Project.]

New research from TeleGeography, a telecom market analysis firm, shows that worldwide Skype usage is now equivalent to over one-third of all international phone traffic -- a record level.

The firm’s new data shows that “international telephone traffic grew 5 percent in 2012, to 490 billion minutes.” At the same time, “cross-border Skype-to-Skype voice and video traffic grew 44 percent in 2012, to 167 billion minutes. This increase of nearly 51 billion minutes is more than twice that achieved by all international carriers in the world, combined.” While that doesn’t mean that telcos are going to go out of business anytime soon, it does mean that they are certainly continuing to feel the heat.