As part of its 2015 Broadband Progress Report, the Federal Communications Commission has voted to change the definition of broadband by raising the minimum download speeds needed from 4Mbps to 25Mbps, and the minimum upload speed from 1Mbps to 3Mbps. Which means that internet companies can’t call a crappy 4 Mbps internet broadband. This don’t mean that everybody will have a minimum of 25/3 Mbps.
Currently, 6.3% of US households don’t have access to broadband under the previous 4Mpbs/1Mbps threshold, while another 13.1 percent don’t have access to broadband under the new 25Mbps downstream threshold.
“When 80 percent of Americans can access 25-3, that’s a standard. We have a problem that 20 percent can’t. We have a responsibility to that 20 percent,”
Commissioner Wheeler said.
FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel wants the minimum broadband standards to be 100Mbps – Which would put us closer to the standards of the interest in other countries like South Korea.
“We invented the internet. We can do audacious things if we set big goals, and I think our new threshold, frankly, should be 100Mbps. I think anything short of that shortchanges our children, our future, and our new digital economy,”
Commissioner Rosenworcel said.
Even though I understand that It would be hard for some IPSs in some area to have 100Mbps over copper lines – I still think that It should be 100Mbps for future safety. We don’t know when the next broadband standards will change and with 4K content viewing and production getting cheaper everyday 25Mbps might be not that much in the very near future. KIM – 24Mbps is perfectly great for highly compressed 4K streaming. We just need to be prepared when we have 6K or 8K streaming in future and the broadband standard is 25Mbps.
