Industry Clashes on Proposed Broadband Benchmarks

Industry and consumer groups disagreed on whether updating the FCC's broadband speed benchmarks is necessary (see 2311010062). Some cited ongoing federal broadband deployment programs and private investments and encouraged the FCC to focus its report to Congress regarding the state of broadband on policies that could further facilitate deployment. Comments were posted Friday and Monday in docket 22-270.

"The exponential growth in teleworking and teleschooling" caused by the COVID-19 pandemic "makes this increase in benchmark speeds necessary," said the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA), which WTA echoed in similar comments. The proposed benchmark would "more accurately track the country's reliance on faster speeds for broadband communications," said the New York State Public Service Commission. The current benchmark is "simply out of step with a typical customer's broadband needs," the PSC said. Consumers' broadband needs have "dramatically changed" since the FCC adopted its current standard, said the Alternative Connect America Cost Model (ACAM) Broadband Coalition. The group backed regular increases to the fixed broadband speed standard "as technology advancements and consumer needs and desires warrant," which the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association echoed in similar comments.

The FCC's definition of advanced telecommunications capability "can no longer include what Congress has deemed underserved," said the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society. The group urged the commission to adopt "aspirational speeds as it did in 2015." The FCC should also "evaluate the availability of broadband networks that permit consumers to originate and receive highly developed or progressive services," the group said. The Fiber Broadband Association agreed and said a symmetric benchmark reflecting "market-based" speeds should be adopted. New America’s Open Technology Institute also backed adopting symmetrical speeds "in response to evolving technological demands, heightened by the COVID-19 reliance on significant upload bandwidth."

NTCA welcomed the proposal but noted a "strategic, longer-term view is warranted as well." The group said a long-term speed goal of 1 Gbps/500 Mbps is a "useful and appropriate longer-term complement to a near-term measure of 100/20 Mbps," the FCC "would be well-served by aiming higher still in setting long-term goals." NTCA suggested the FCC consider whether fixed broadband goals "should be determined by platform rather than speed alone." Incompas suggested suggested the FCC adopt a 1 Gbps standard now rather than set it as a long-term goal. The group noted that many providers already offer speeds of 100/20 Mbps. "It is time for the commission to adopt a future-proof definition of 1 Gbps download broadband internet for our nation," Incompas said. The FCC should "have no difficulty concluding that 100/20 Mbps service is being reasonably and timely deployed to all Americans," said ACA Connects.

Don't adopt a symmetrical speed benchmark, said NCTA, noting that doing so would "undermine efforts to close the digital divide" because the minimum deployment speeds required for most federal broadband subsidy programs are currently 100/20 Mbps. "Portions of the country that are now deemed served would no longer be considered served at a 100/100 level, which could lead to wasteful overbuilding," NCTA added. USTelecom warned that some proposals are "tangential to deployment, and could divert resources from continued network investment." The group urged the FCC to "refrain from predicting future speed benchmarks" after adopting a 100/20 Mbps benchmark and limit its inquiry to the progress on broadband deployment or availability.

Broadband "undeniably is both available and being deployed in a reasonable and timely fashion," said the Free State Foundation. The proposed benchmark "inappropriately conflates congressional build-out requirements for new, federally subsidized network construction with current consumer needs," FSF said, adding that the commission's long-term speed goal is "wholly unrelated to today's actual consumer usage and demand, or over any reasonable timeline, especially in the upstream direction."

Congress' directives in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act support "at most a fixed broadband benchmark of 100/20 Mbps, not a higher benchmark, or any long-term benchmark above 100/20 Mbps," said CTIA. The FCC should report on whether broadband deployment has been "reasonable and timely" rather than focus on speed benchmarks, the group said. "The present proceeding aims at one real objective: rate regulation for broadband," said TechFreedom. The group said the FCC sought data that "it isn't authorized to seek" as "an opportunity to provide regulatory ammunition for its heavy-handed agenda."