The Federal Communications Commission is set to vote to abolish a policy goal of defining high-speed internet as 1000/500 Mbps, a goal proposed by the Biden-era FCC. Instead, the FCC proposes to maintain the benchmark at the slower 100 Mbps for downloads and 25 Mbps for uploads.
Lowering the goal for a benchmark speed would likely create less investment for fiber networks and the higher speeds they enable, which typically range up to 1 Gbps but can go much higher.
At the center of the issue is the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which was passed to “encourage the rapid deployment of new telecommunications technologies.” To that end, the legislation’s Section 706 mandates that the FCC annually assess the progress of high-speed internet to all Americans. If advances aren’t happening at a “reasonable and timely fashion,” Section 706 empowers the FCC to eliminate barriers to investment and work to increase competition in the telecom market.
That language seems clear, yet as the White House has changed hands between Republicans and Democrats, it has been interpreted quite differently. Under Republican leadership, the FCC has generally opted to keep the benchmark standard untouched, adopting a classic leave-business-alone approach. Democratic FCC initiatives have promoted raising the benchmark, which encourages investment and also means the government is playing a more active role in business.
True to form, the current FCC has just issued a notice indicating that it will “Propose to abolish the long-term goal of 1,000/500 Mbps established in the 2024 Report, as no long-term goal is mentioned in the statute.” Similarly, the FCC is opting not to set a long-term goal for broadband speed because “long-term goals risk skewing the market by unnecessarily potentially picking technological winners and losers.”
The FCC notice also says that setting a speed goal wouldn’t comply with the commission’s “obligation to conduct our analysis in a technologically neutral manner.” The FCC is claiming neutrality in the competition between fiber and satellite services like SpaceX’s Starlink and Amazon’s recently launched Project Kuiper. Starlink, which serves isolated and rural regions, offers speeds in the 25 to 222 Mbps range. Kuiper offers consumer plans in the 100 to 400 Mbps range, with an enterprise plan up to 1 Gbps.
Alternately, fixed wireless providers like Verizon and T-Mobile run in the 50 Mbps or higher range, with 5G fixed wireless plans up to 1 Gbps.
The FCC claims that “assuming a long-term goal of 1,000/500Mbps may be unreasonably prejudicial to technologies such as satellite and fixed wireless that presently do not support such speeds [as fiber]. We believe it prudent to continue to monitor technological developments and consumer preferences and adapt our current benchmark….”
The FCC is scheduled to vote on the proposal on August 7. The leadership of the FCC is typically comprised of five commissioners, but currently has only three due to departures. The leadership skews Republican 2-1.
On a related note, in early March, the Trump administration shifted the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program away from a fiber-first approach to a “technology-neutral” approach. The likely result is that more funding will flow to satellite providers.
