FCC to study data caps, and may raise broadband speed threshold

With Comcast, Verizon and other broadband providers beginning to offer broadband Internet services with download speeds of 300 Mbps and faster, the Federal Communications Commission says it may need to change the definition for what it considers broadband.

Since 2010, the FCC has said that Internet service providers had to offer download speeds of 4 Mbps and upload speeds of 1 Mbps for their products to be considered broadband. In a notice of inquiry issued on Tuesday, the FCC said that the threshold may need to be raised to reflect the demands required by consumers relying more on broadband services to download high-definition video and to access the Internet on multiple devices in their homes. The commission, which released its Eighth Annual Broadband Progress Report on Tuesday, said it is also considering whether to gauge the impact that broadband usage caps and tiered data plans in next year's report. "If we add a data capacity threshold for fixed broadband in the next report, what data capacity threshold or thresholds should we adopt," the FCC asks in the notice of inquiry. "What data capacity limits do most fixed broadband providers offer today? How often, and under what circumstances, do consumers exceed these limits?"