Rosenworcel proposes national goal of 100% access to affordable broadband

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel recently shared with her colleagues an updated Notice of Inquiry that would kick off the agency’s evaluation of the state of broadband across the country, as required by Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act. Chairwoman Rosenworcel proposes that the Commission consider several crucial characteristics of broadband deployment, including affordability, adoption, availability, and equitable access, when determining whether broadband is being deployed in a reasonable and timely fashion to “all Americans.”

“In today’s world, everyone needs access to affordable, high-speed internet, no exceptions,” said Chairwoman Rosenworcel. “It’s time to connect everyone, everywhere. Anything short of 100% is just not good enough.”

In addition to focusing on a universal service standard, the Notice of Inquiry proposes to increase the national fixed broadband standard to 100 megabits per second for download and 20 megabits per second for upload, and discusses a range of evidence supporting this standard, including the requirements for new networks funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The FCC previously set the broadband standard at 25/3 Mbps in 2015 and has not updated it since. The Notice of Inquiry proposes to set a separate national goal of 1 Gbps/500 Mbps for the future.

CT Bureau