Our Fixation on 25/3 Mbps

Recently Mike Conlow discussed how cellular companies are reporting large numbers of passings on the Federal Communications Commission's broadband maps as having the capability to receive exactly 25/3 Mbps. That isn’t a very fast broadband speed, so why does this make any difference? It turns out that the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is using the number of locations with speeds under 25/3 Mbps to allocate the $42.5 Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) grant dollars between states. The problem is that, in many cases, the claimed speeds are not true. The technologies that I see claiming exactly 25/3 Mbps speeds include DSL, fixed cellular broadband, and fixed wireless internet service provider (WISP) broadband. Speeds steadily decrease with the distance between a customer and a tower. Even if these providers are being truthful about the speeds that can be delivered close to towers, these speeds are exaggerated for customers farther from towers. This particular problem was created when the politicians that wrote the BEAD grant (and other federal grants) rules tied eligibility for funding to the FCC maps and to specific speeds. This is an incredibly shortsighted idea because, by definition, the FCC allows broadband providers to overstate speeds.