FCC Speed Standard that Former FCC Chair Ajit Pai Never Updated is Too Slow, GAO Report Says

upstart writes:

FCC speed standard that Ajit Pai never updated is too slow, GAO report says:

The Wheeler-led FCC in January 2015 updated the agency's broadband standard from 4Mbps downstream and 1Mbps upstream to 25Mbps downloads/3Mbps uploads. The increase was opposed by broadband-industry lobbyists and Republicans, including Ajit Pai, who was then a commissioner and later served as FCC chairman throughout the Trump administration.

Pai never updated the 25Mbps/3Mbps standard in his four years as chair. In his last annual broadband-deployment report issued in January 2021, Pai concluded that "fixed services with speeds of 25/3Mbps continue to meet the statutory definition of advanced telecommunications capability."

Consumer advocates have frequently called the 25Mbps/3Mbps outdated, and the nonpartisan US Government Accountability Office (GAO) agreed in a report based on a review of research and interviews with small businesses.

"Much of the literature GAO reviewed suggests that FCC's current broadband minimum benchmark speeds-25 megabits per second (Mbps) for downloading and 3Mbps for uploading-are likely too slow to meet many small business speed needs," the GAO said in a report issued Thursday.

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