One of the federal government’s most ambitious broadband targets may soon be abandoned. On August 7, the FCC will vote on a proposal to drop its goal of gig speeds for every American.
In March last year, the Democratic-led group voted to raise the definition of minimum broadband speeds from 25Mbps download and 3Mbps upload speed to 100/20Mbps. It also set a more ambitious long-term goal of increasing the benchmark to 1,000Mbps download and 500Mbps upload speed.
Trump’s pick for FCC chair, Brendan Carr, has consistently advocated for a “technology neutral” approach to broadband subsidies. There’s only one broadband technology that can currently reach 1,000/500Mbps, and that’s fiber internet.
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Carr’s proposal repeatedly points to the previous, Democrat-led FCC’s goals as outside the bounds of Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which requires the FCC to “encourage the deployment” of telecommunications service “on a reasonable and timely basis” to all Americans.
"Not only is a long-term goal not mentioned in section 706, but maintaining such a goal risks skewing the market by unnecessarily potentially picking technological winners and losers," Carr’s plan says.
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While Carr was critical of the increase to the minimum broadband threshold when it passed last year, there is no mention of rolling back the 100/20Mbps requirement.
Changes in how we measure broadband progress
Another notable departure from the 2024 report is how the FCC could measure broadband deployment going forward. Last year, for example, the Commission determined that 7% of Americans did not have access to 100/20Mbps speeds. Carr’s proposal argues that this is a flawed way to measure progress toward closing the digital divide.
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