FCC Officially Raises Minimum Broadband Metric from 25Mbps to 100Mbps

The target for phones used to be significantly higher, but with cellphones home internet is generally less safety critical.

Here's a mirror of the text I grabbed from another computer/IP for anyone else getting blocked:

    FCC INCREASES BROADBAND SPEED BENCHMARK
    Annual Agency Assessment of High-Speed Internet Service Deployment    Establishes New Standard to Better Reflect the Broadband Needs of American Households
    -- 
    WASHINGTON, March 14, 2024—The Federal Communications Commission today adopted its annual assessment of whether advanced telecommunications capability is being deployed in a reasonable and timely fashion across the U.S.  In addition to deployment, the Report considers broadband affordability, adoption, availability, and equitable access, when determining whether broadband is being deployed in a reasonable and timely fashion to “all Americans.”  The Commission’s Report, issued pursuant to section 706 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, raises the Commission’s benchmark for high-speed fixed broadband to download speeds of 100 megabits per second and upload speeds of 20 megabits per second – a four-fold increase from the 25/3 Mbps benchmark set by the Commission in 2015.

    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 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, and the fact that these gaps in deployment are not closing rapidly enough.

    Using the agency’s Broadband Data Collection deployment data for the first time rather than FCC Form 477 data, the Report shows 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; and
    · 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 to give stakeholders a collective goal towards which to strive – a better, faster, more robust system of communication for American consumers.

    Action by the Commission March 14, 2024 by Report (FCC 24-27).  Chairwoman Rosenworcel, Commissioners Starks and Gomez approving.  Commissioners Carr and Simington dissenting.  Chairwoman Rosenworcel, Commissioners Carr, Starks, Simington, and Gomez issuing separate statements.

    GN Docket No. 22-270

The problem with this theory, particularly in the case of an ISP, is you need an actual free and open market with a large amount of competition before it starts making any sense. When you talk about things like ISPs which are region locked and have low or even no competition then it's meaningless. A region locked ISP can (and will) charge pretty much any price the market will bear divorced from the actual cost of service.

If you've got actually decent Internet, or you actually do use the bandwidth, great! My experience is that only a few applications will max out my 115Mbit/s connection, and given I have semi-decent kit and a decent ISP using the full bandwidth doesn't have a big impact on latency so I can be streaming, downloading, and have multiple people video-calling and that's fine.

Looking at my stats, there's only been a five minute period in the past 24h with sustained speeds used of over 20Mbit/s.

I guess I'm really just spoiled. In the last 10 years I think I've only really experienced like 1 or 2 outages caused by my current ISP and they were resolved within the hour. My assumption is that like most people, all the ISP equipment is buried so the only things that can really go wrong are either at the colo or the home (like a router that dies). Having a line cut is simply a hyper rare event.

On the other hand, my overhead powerlines have caused most of my outages. An idiot crashing into the telephone poll has made my power less reliable than my internet.