FCC To Change What A Broadband Connection Is Considered
Continuing its push to deliver high-speed Internet to Americans, the FCC has announced plans to update the legal grounds as to what constitutes a “broadband” connection. Since 2010 the FCC has stated that to be called broadband the internet service needed to be 4Mbps downstream and 1Mbps upstream. For more than a decade before that, download speeds of 200Kb/s or better qualified as a broadband service.
Netflix recommends a minimum 5Mbps download speed to stream HD content, so as you can imagine, a 4Mbps ‘broadband’ connection today might leave you very aggravated. How many Mbps should an internet connection have to be considered broadband? According to the Washington Post there is an internal notice of inquiry being circulated at the FCC, a step that will allow the agency to then solicit public comments on whether the new minimum download speed for broadband service should be raised to 10 or even 25Mbps. In the event that the download specification for broadband is set to 10 Mbps, the upload speed would be defined at 2.9 Mbps. A recent FCC study of broadband adoption, released in 2012, shows that 19 million Americans (6% of the country) don’t have access to broadband. That percentage would climb significantly if broadband service were redefined at 10Mbps or 25Mbps.
The National Broadband Plan has a goal that at least 100 million homes should have affordable access to actual download speeds of at least 50 Mbps by 2015, and 100 Mbps/50 Mbps by 2020. Expansion in high speed networks across the country will provide economic opportunities, increase civic engagement, deliver on the promise of better access to healthcare and online learning, and help fuel the development of a smart power grid and a more highly interactive and responsive public safety network. They also believe that broader access to fast broadband will encourage the expansion and adoption of cloud computing, more productive telecommuting, online education, telemedicine, and more.
With video and music streaming on the rise, the need for faster internet connections is here again and the higher ratings can’t happen soon enough. There is nothing worse than getting to a hotel and paying $10-20 a day for broadband internet that might be 4Mbps at 3am when everyone is asleep. Setting higher minimum broadband speeds is a good thing as 4K Ultra HD content will be soon coming. The FCC has been busy lately with the heated ongoing debate on net neutrality, the possibility of making broadband Internet a public utility, and if they should allow paid prioritization.