Slow Broadband? FCC Wants To Boost Internet Speeds From 'Harmful' Minimums
Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
The current minimum measure for broadband is behind the times and, even worse, it's harmful, warns the chairwoman of the US telecoms sector regulator, the Federal Communications Commission.
Jessica Rosenworcel, Joe Biden's appointment for chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), wants to raise the US's national standard for minimum broadband speeds and to create a more ambitious long-term speed goal.
The current minimums of 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload (25/3) speeds were established in 2015 under then-FCC chairman Tom Wheeler. Prior to this, the minimum was 4/1 Mbps. The minimum was not raised under the Trump Administration's FCC chairman Ajit Pai.
Rosenworcel wants to bump up the national minimum to 100/20 Mbps and has called the current minimum "harmful" for low-income and rural communities.
[...] Rosenworcel also wants the FCC to set a separate national of 1 Gbps/500 Mbps for the future. She's proposing the FCC consider affordability, adoption, availability, and equitable access as part of its determination as to whether broadband is being deployed in a reasonable and timely fashion.
[...] But there are questions over whether the FCC can currently implement the new minimum speed as debate kicks off again about net neutrality, as the Washington Post reports. Democrats generally support net neutrality while Republicans generally oppose it.
Since Biden's administration begun, the five-seat FCC board has been deadlocked with two Democrats and two Republicans due to delays in nominating the fifth, which progressives hope is Biden's pick, Gigi Sohn, co-founder of telecom advocacy group Public Knowledge.
Do other countries mandate minimum speeds, and if so, how do they compare?
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