US Broadband Deployment Going Comparatively Well, Raising Questions About FCC Critique, NCTA Says

While a recent FCC report indicating broadband isn't being rolled out broadly enough or quickly enough to meet a statutory deployment mandate (see 1601280064) got much attention, another recent FCC report comparing U.S. broadband rollout with other parts of the world (see 1602010071) deserves more, NCTA said in a blog post Tuesday. "The FCC’s international report demonstrates that American broadband performance is well ahead of our friends in Europe," NCTA said. "So notwithstanding the doom and gloom that was on display at the FCC’s meeting last week ... the state of U.S. broadband continues to be extremely strong." Given that, NCTA said, "The FCC’s conclusion that deployment in the U.S. is not reasonable and timely is hard to fathom. It does not seem too much to ask that the FCC take its own factual findings seriously rather than continuing to perpetuate the fiction that American broadband is languishing." The FCC didn't comment.