FCC Finds 14 to 24 Million Americans Lack Access to Broadband (updated)

New research from the Federal Communications Commission finds that between 14 and 24 million Americans still lack access to broadband, and the immediate prospects for deployment to them are bleak.

This report underscores the need for comprehensive reform of the Universal Service Fund, innovative approaches to unleashing new spectrum, and removal of barriers to infrastructure investment. The report concludes that the goal of universal availability -- deployment to all Americans -- is not being met in a timely way, and proposes to address key recommendations from the FCC's National Broadband Plan to connect all Americans as quickly as possible, including:

• Reforming the FCC's universal service programs to support broadband through public-private partnerships;
• Unleashing spectrum for mobile broadband;
• Reducing barriers to infrastructure investment, including delays in access to poles and rights-of-way;
• Collecting better broadband data to assist policymakers and consumers.

The report also takes the long-overdue step of updating a key standard - speed - used to determine whether households are served by broadband. It upgrades the standard from 200 kilobits per second downstream, a standard set over a decade ago when web pages were largely text-based, to 4 megabits per second (Mbps) downstream and 1 Mbps upstream. This is a minimum speed generally required for using today's video-rich broadband applications and services, while retaining sufficient capacity for basic web browsing and e-mail.

Reaction

FCC Chairman Genachowski: "The report we release today uses new data and improved analysis to take an honest look at the current state of broadband in America. Consistent with the findings of the National Broadband Plan, the report points out the great broadband successes in the United States, including as many as 290 million Americans who have gained access to broadband over the past decade. But the statute requires more. It requires the agency to reach a conclusion about whether all—not some, not most—Americans are being served in a reasonable and timely fashion. In other words, it requires a conclusion about whether the United States is on the road to achieving truly universal broadband availability, of the kind that our country achieved in the previous century with respect to traditional telephone service."

Commissioner Copps: "At last—a section 706 Report where broadband is really broadband, where zip codes are not surrogates for subscribers, and where the documented failure to connect millions upon millions of Americans disproves previous FCC findings that broadband is being reasonably and timely deployed."

Commissioner McDowell: "This 180 degree reversal is unsettling considering that since the issuance of the Commission's first Section 706 Report, America has made impressive improvements in developing and deploying broadband infrastructure and services. In fact, referencing findings from the National Broadband Plan, this Report even states that "95% of the U.S. population lives in housing units with access to terrestrial, fixed broadband infrastructure capable of supporting actual download speeds of at least 4 Mbps." I am concerned that this Report fails to provide sufficient justification as to why the Commission is reversing course from previous reports."

Commissioner Clyburn: "I believe that where companies have had a business case to offer broadband service, they have done so. Nonetheless, there are many geographic areas in the U.S. where broadband still is not available because it is not economical for the private sector to deploy broadband and offer service. In order to remedy the lack of broadband availability, it is appropriate that the Commission fully consider the recommendations made in the National Broadband Plan to encourage broadband deployment, including for example, comprehensive reform of the universal service fund."

Commissioner Baker: "The Commission's obligation under section 706 is to evaluate broadband infrastructure deployment. By every possible metric, wired, wireless, and satellite companies continue to pour billions of dollars into our nation's broadband network. From 2003 to 2009, under a consistent minimal regulatory framework, broadband providers have invested $27 billion annually in networks and infrastructure. Each year networks go further and faster. The National Broadband Plan found that 95 percent of the U.S. population has access to a 4 Mbps/1 Mbps terrestrial broadband service, and 80 percent have choice of broadband offerings. In every prior Section 706 Report, the Commission concluded that broadband deployment was timely and reasonable. In a striking departure from that decade of consistent Commission findings, the Commission has changed course by concluding that broadband deployment now is not reasonable and timely. I cannot support this decision. Broadband infrastructure deployment and investment are a remarkable and continuing success story, and I am troubled by giving such significant efforts a failing grade."

Charles Benton, Benton Foundation CEO and Chairman: ""The Federal Communications Commission rightly finds today that all means all. If 14 to 24 million Americans can not make use of today's essential communications tool, then the U.S. has a problem. In an increasingly competitive global marketplace, we need all Americans connected to the tools that are essential to jobs and economic growth, democratic engagement and civic engagement, health and public safety, and education and lifelong learning. Both the public and private sector should see the FCC's new report as another call to join forces and implement the National Broadband Plan. If not, we run the risk of a unconnected America, a second-class player on the global stage."

Free Press Research Director S. Derek Turner: "Today's report is the first time the FCC has determined that broadband deployment is not reasonable and timely, and we are extremely pleased that the Genachowski FCC had the courage to do what all previous Commissions could not, and that is to put politics aside and take an objective look at the law and the data. Millions of Americans lack access to broadband, and tens of millions more have only the option to purchase slow connections that fall well short of the congressional definition of 'broadband' - at expensive prices. The facts present a sobering reality of our broadband problem. We pay far too much for far too little, and the lack of meaningful competition among Internet service providers leads to delayed investment and slow technological progress. Now that the FCC has taken the first step of acknowledging America's broadband problem, we hope that it will advance policies to will reverse this decline though the promotion of real competition and true consumer choice."

Media Access Project: "This report appropriately updates the standard for what speeds count as broadband, and recognizes the gaping digital divide in communities throughout this country. Chairman Genachowski should be commended for improving the inquiry's analyses in a way that highlights obvious disparities in deployment of affordable high-speed services to rural regions and low-income areas."

AT&T: "To the extent that this report provides momentum to finally fix the long-broken universal service/intercarrier compensation problem, and to remove actual economic barriers to broadband investment, then that is a positive development. However, to the extent it is used as pretext to justify more investment choking regulation a la the Title II debate, we will have squandered another opportunity to address the real broadband issues in this country."