Today, Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced that the FCC will vote during its March meeting to set its broadband benchmark speeds at 100 megabits per second for downloads and 20 megabits per second for uploads and find that broadband is not being deployed in a reasonable and timely fashion. The following statement may be attributed to the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society’s Kevin Taglang:

“The FCC last updated its speed benchmarks for advanced telecommunications capability in January 2015; since then our online lives have changed dramatically, so the Commission’s coming action is welcome and overdue. The new benchmark aligns the FCC standard with the bar set by Congress in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

“On the deployment question, recognizing the country’s enduring digital divide, Congress allocated billions of dollars in the last five years to ensure broadband networks reach everyone, everywhere in the country, that service is affordable, and can be used for healthcare, education and other essential services. As Congress and the FCC have now wisely recognized, it is not enough for networks to meet just certain deployment milestones. Consumer behavior is part of the picture: we cannot reach our universal broadband goals without widespread adoption and we cannot achieve universal broadband adoption if service is not affordable. The federal government, the states, and many local governments are using historic investments to close the digital divide. But we haven’t completed the task yet and it is no time to claim a victory that has yet to be achieved.”

The Benton Institute for Broadband & Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring that all people in the U.S. have access to competitive, High-Performance Broadband regardless of where they live or who they are. We believe communication policy - rooted in the values of access, equity, and diversity - has the power to deliver new opportunities and strengthen communities.

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