Five times the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has reported to Congress that broadband Internet access is being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely manner. Now, in its sixth annual report, the FCC has told Congress that no, broadband deployment is off track. What happened?
Five times the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has reported to Congress that broadband Internet access is being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely manner. Now, in its sixth annual report, the FCC has told Congress that no, broadband deployment is off track. What happened?
The simple answer is that the FCC changed the definition of what counts as a “broadband” connection. The standard in use for over a decade had been an Internet connection speed of 200 kilobits per second downstream. The FCC said that was out of date and used a new standard of 4 megabits per second downstream and 1 megabit per second upstream to determine whether a household now has broadband availability.
The new report was approved on a partisan 3-2 vote and Republican Commissioner Meredith Baker immediately denounced it as bunk. “Broadband infrastructure deployment and investment are a remarkable and continuing success story, and I am troubled by giving such significant efforts a failing grade,” she said in her dissent.
“I am concerned that this Report fails to provide sufficient justification as to why the Commission is reversing course from previous reports,” wrote Commissioner Robert McDowell (R), who also voted no on approving the report.
Chairman Julius Genachowski (D) played up the report findings as support for his National Broadband Plan. He did admit to some successes, since as many as 290 million Americans have gained access to broadband over the past decade, but he noted that the report to Congress is supposed to focus on whether all Americans are being served in a reasonable and timely fashion. He worries that 14-24 million Americans live in areas where they cannot get broadband. The report urges reform of the universal service program to spur investment in those hard to reach and expensive areas for broadband deployment.
Commissioner Mignon Clyburn (D) agreed that it is important to get the infrastructure out to the areas which lack it, but she also noted that universal availability doesn’t mean much without universal acceptance. “Cost is the most cited reason for not subscribing to broadband,” so she pointed to recommendations in the National Broadband Plan on how to make broadband more affordable.
Commissioner Michael Copps (D) insisted that the 6th report was actually the first to tell Congress the real story. “The sixth time is the charm. 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. I am pleased to support the Broadband Deployment Report that we issue today,” he said.
