NCTA to FCC: 25 Mbps Shouldn't Be Measure of Deployment

The National Cable & Telecommunications Association told the Federal Communications Commission that the commission should not up its Section 706 report definition of broadband to 25 Mbps downstream/3 Mbps upstream. And that if it does, the FCC should make it clear that it has no regulatory "significance" outside that report.

"The FCC should be particularly careful to clarify that it is not endeavoring to define a distinct product market for broadband services meeting the speed benchmark," NCTA said. One concern is that the new speed benchmark could be used against Comcast in the Time Warner Cable merger review since it would give the combined company a greater percentage of subscribers since they have a greater percentage of high-speed subscribers. The higher the speed definition in the report, the smaller the number of customers show up as having broadband, and thus the continued authority to regulate in the name of universal deployment if, as the FCC has interpreted it, the requirement won't be satisfied until "All Americans" have broadband.