WASHINGTON, D.C.—The Federal Communications Commission has voted to raise its baseline definition of broadband speeds. The FCC adopted the higher speeds as part of its annual assessment of how advanced telecommunications capabilities are being deployed across the U.S.
The Commission’s Report, issued pursuant to section 706 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, raises the FCC’s benchmark for high-speed fixed broadband to download speeds of 100 megabits per second and upload speeds of 20 megabits per second. That marks a four-fold increase in speeds from the 25/3 Mbps benchmark set by the Commission in 2015.
The FCC said that the increase in the Commission’s fixed speed benchmark for advanced telecommunications capability is based on the standards now used in multiple federal and state programs (such as NTIA’s BEAD Program and multiple USF programs), consumer usage patterns, and what is actually available from and marketed by internet service providers.
The Report also concludes that advanced telecommunications capability is not being deployed in a reasonable and timely fashion based on the total number of Americans, Americans in rural areas, and people living on Tribal lands who lack access to such capability. The report also argued that those gaps in deployment are not closing rapidly enough.
The Report made that assessment by using the agency’s Broadband Data Collection deployment data for the first time rather than FCC Form 477 data.
Based on that data the Report concluded that as of December 2022:
- Fixed terrestrial broadband service (excluding satellite) has not been physically deployed to approximately 24 million Americans, including almost 28% of Americans in rural areas, and more than 23% of people living on Tribal lands;
- Mobile 5G-NR coverage has not been physically deployed at minimum speeds of 35/3 Mbps to roughly 9% of all Americans, to almost 36% of Americans in rural areas, and to more than 20% of people living on Tribal lands;
- 45 million Americans lack access to both 100/20 Mbps fixed service and 35/3 Mbps mobile 5G-NR service;
- Based on the new 1 Gbps per 1,000 students and staff short-term benchmark for schools and classrooms, 74% of school districts meet this goal.
The Report also sets a 1 Gbps/500 Mbps long-term goal for broadband speeds.
The Report was praised by FCC chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and criticized by Republican-appointed commissioners in statements after a three to two vote on March 14 adopting the report.
In a statement Rosenworcel argued that “The pandemic exposed our digital divide in living color.
That is why we are now in the bold business of fixing this divide. That is why today the Commission updates its standard for broadband, our baseline, to 100 Megabits down and 20 Megabits up from 25 Megabits down and 3 Megabits up. This fix is overdue. It aligns us with pandemic legislation like the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the work of our colleagues at other agencies. It also helps us better identify the extent to which low-income neighborhoods and rural communities are underserved. And because doing big things is in our DNA, we also adopt a long-term goal of 1 Gigabit down and 500 Megabits up.”
“Our goal is to connect everyone, everywhere to high-speed broadband,” she added. “But the last fully vetted and validated annual data before this agency show conclusively that we are not there yet. Nearly 24 million are not connected, including 28% of Americans living in rural areas and more than 23% of people on Tribal lands. That means millions of people still do not have the broadband they need to fully participate in modern life.”
In dissenting statements commissioners Nathan Simington and Brendan Carr raised a number of objections.
In his statement, Carr argued that “the liberties the Commission takes with the data and the law necessarily color its adoption of a new 100/20 Mbps benchmark” and that “the item’s treatment of the new benchmark is troubling in several respects.”
“First, the 100/20 Mbps requirement appears to be part and parcel of the Commission’s broader attempt to circumvent the statutory requirement of technological neutrality,” Carr wrote, arguing that “the 706 Report disregards Congress’s directive—most notably, by ignoring satellite deployment. According to the latest BDC, more than 99% of eligible locations have high-speed satellite service at 100/20 Mbps. In refusing to account for high-speed satellite, the item claims to follow past FCC practice. That ostrich-like assertion ignores the obvious fact that the quality and availability of high-speed, low-earth orbit satellite service has improved dramatically since our last report in 2021—so much so that satellite has become a viable source of intermodal competition.”
“Arbitrarily picking and choosing preferred technologies, unfortunately, has become all too common in this Administration,” Carr said. “And while I appreciated the ultimate decision to consider fixed wireless at my suggestion, I echo Commissioner Simington’s worry that Commission’s long-term goal of 1,000/500 Mbps lays the groundwork to step even further away from our technological neutrality mandate. I hope it is not a Trojan Horse to exclude fixed wireless in a future report because it is deemed not “capable” of supporting aspirational speeds. Because, fundamentally, the problem with counting broadband as something other than broadband is that it leads inevitably to wasteful overbuilding and upgrading communities that already have connectivity rather than remaining focused on the communities still stuck on the wrong side of the digital divide.”
Carr also argued that “the 706 Report makes a surprisingly weak showing to justify 100/20 Mbps as the minimum threshold to count as official broadband service—which is, after all, the point of the 706 Report…These flaws suggest the benchmark was selected, not based on hard evidence or reasonable customer expectations, but as another lever to reverse-engineer a predetermined outcome.”
All of this is part of an agenda, he concluded to expand Title II regulation to the internet.
“In a regulatory environment where the FCC believes that doling out a failing grade will give the agency more power, I don’t think it is too surprising, as I noted at the outset, that this Commission landed where it did,” Carr wrote. “But the FCC’s basic data and legal errors will ultimately sink whatever future decisions rely on this report as a justification or basis for action. I am sure the courts will see through that gambit.”
