FCC Commissioner Rosenworcel Statement on Sixteenth Broadband Deployment Report Notice of Inquiry

By seeking comment, as we do here, on where service is and is not, we should be developing a record that supports an honest assessment of the availability of broadband across the country. But the ugly truth is that when the agency released its last Broadband Deployment Report earlier in 2020 it concluded that broadband deployment was “reasonable and timely” nationwide. In other words, it found all was well.

That’s just not right. For starters, the Federal Communications Commission concluded that there were only 18 million people in the US without access to broadband. That number wildly understates the extent of the digital divide in the country. Earlier in 2020 President Donald Trump signed the Broadband DATA Act directing the FCC to clean up its act and develop data and maps that reflect the true state of broadband access in the US. But the agency has yet to roll up its sleeves to collect any improved information as part of this effort—so the same data problems that existed last time are bound to show upin this inquiry, too.

Plus, in its last report the FCC continued to use a broadband standard that is too low for a nation that has moved so much online.  With many of our nation’s providers offering gigabit service, it’s time for the FCC to adjust its baseline upward, too. We need to reset it to at least 100 megabits per second. While we’re at it we need to revisit our thinking about upload speeds. At present, our standard is 3 megabits per second. But this asymmetrical approach is dated. We need to recognize that with enormous changes in data processing and cloud storage, upload speeds should be rethought. There is, unfortunately, little evidence the FCC is willing to do so in this inquiry.

Finally, in its last report the FCC neglected to meaningfully discuss big issues that contribute to the digital divide. It didn’t consider affordability. It barely mentioned digital literacy. If the agency is serious about living up to its duty to report on the state of broadband in this country, these omissions are a problem. But there is little here to suggest the FCC is seriously considering these matters in this inquiry now.