Higher minimum broadband speeds reflect internet’s growth

The last time the Federal Communications Commission raised the standard for broadband, the internet was a much different place. Most people were still commuting to work, relying on their employer’s high-speed internet connection.  It was 2015, and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) had noticed that adoption was growing among groups that traditionally lagged, including senior citizens, minorities, and Americans with lower levels of educational attainment. But the agency also noted that internet use “may be nearing a plateau among segments of the population that have historically been more likely to go online. … [Still] efforts to further boost adoption in the [US] should target the particular challenges faced by those who have been less likely to use the Internet.” The Pew Research Center came to a similar conclusion about plateauing home internet use and found that smartphones were becoming an increasingly popular way to connect. That was the backdrop for the FCC’s decision to raise its broadband benchmark speed to 25 megabits per second for downloads and 3 Mbps for uploads, up from the 2010 standard of 4 Mbps/1 Mbps. The FCC was concerned that rural broadband wasn’t keeping pace with the “high-quality voice, data, graphics and video offerings” of the time and said the 2010 standard was “dated and inadequate” for closing that digital divide. Since then, demands on the internet and for greater connectivity have only increased. While bandwidth is increasing worldwide, the shift in how people learn, work and play has led to increased calls for high-quality broadband that far outstrips the current FCC standard. The status of the FCC’s push to raise broadband standards is unclear, but new research supports such an effort.