Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Jessica Rosenworcel circulated a Notice of Inquiry that will launch the agency's annual assessment of the state of broadband nationwide.
As part of this, Rosenworcel is proposing to raise national standards for minimum broadband speeds and set long-term goals for broadband speeds.
The notice proposes to raise the national broadband standard to 100Mb/s download speed and 20Mb/s upload speed and discusses a range of evidence supporting the standard, including requirements for new networks funded by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.The FCC previously set the broadband standard at 25/3Mb/s in 2015.
The proposals also include a separate national goal of 1Gb/s for downloads and 500Mb/s in the future. in addition to speed, Rosenworcel recommended that the FC consider affordability, adoption, availability and equitable access as part of its determination of whether broadband is deployed in a reasonable and timely manner.
The needs of Internet users exceeded the FCC's 25/3 speed metric a long time ago, especially as the global health pandemic has shifted so many lives online," she said. the 25/3 metric is not only behind the times, it is harmful because it masks the extent to which low-income and rural communities are being left behind and offline. That's why we need to raise the bar on minimum broadband speeds now, while also setting higher targets for the future, because we need to set ambitious goals if we want everyone everywhere to have a fair shot at 21st century success.
This latest initiative comes on the heels of the European Commission's announcement earlier this year that it will officially launch the Affordable Connectivity Program as the $14.2 billion successor to the Emergency Broadband Benefit, which aims to help nearly 9 million people afford Internet access during the pandemic.
