Defining Broadband: Minimum Threshold Speeds and Broadband Policy

Summary

Broadband—whether delivered via fiber, cable modem, copper wire, satellite, or mobile wireless—is increasingly the technology underlying telecommunications services such as voice, video, and data. Since the initial deployment of high-speed internet in the late 1990s, broadband technologies have been deployed throughout the United States primarily by the private sector. These providers include telephone, cable, wireless, and satellite companies as well as other entities that provide commercial telecommunications services to residential, business, and institutional customers.

How broadband is defined and characterized in statute and in regulation can have a significant impact on federal broadband policies and how federal resources are allocated to promote broadband deployment in unserved and underserved areas. One way broadband can be defined is by setting a minimum threshold speed for what constitutes “broadband service.” Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 requires the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to regularly initiate an inquiry concerning the availability of broadband to all Americans and to determine whether broadband is “being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion.” If the determination is negative, the act directs the FCC to “take immediate action to accelerate deployment of such capability by removing barriers to infrastructure investment and by promoting competition in the telecommunications market.”

Starting in 1999, there have been 10 Section 706 reports, each providing a snapshot and assessment of broadband deployment. As part of this assessment, and to help determine whether broadband is being deployed in “a reasonable and timely fashion,” the FCC has set a minimum broadband speed that essentially serves as the benchmark the FCC uses to determine what it considers broadband service for the purposes of its Section 706 determination. In 2015 the FCC, citing changing broadband usage patterns and multiple devices using broadband within single households, raised its minimum fixed broadband benchmark speed from 4 Mbps (download)/1 Mbps (upload) to 25 Mbps/3 Mbps.

On August 8, 2017, the FCC adopted and released its Thirteenth Section 706 Notice of Inquiry (NOI). One proposal under consideration is establishing a lower benchmark speed specifically for mobile broadband. Stakeholders who support an FCC determination that broadband is not being deployed in a reasonable and timely fashion generally oppose lowering the broadband benchmark by considering the presence of either fixed (at 25 Mbps/3 Mbps) or mobile (at 10 Mbps/1 Mbps) broadband as an indication that an area has adequate broadband service. On the other hand, stakeholders who support an FCC determination that broadband is being deployed in a reasonable and timely fashion generally support changing the FCC’s broadband benchmark methodology to include the presence of either fixed or mobile broadband as an indication that an area is receiving adequate broadband service.

Three issues for Congress are how broadband benchmarks should be set, whether the FCC will determine that broadband is being deployed in a reasonable and timely fashion, and how that determination and those benchmarks will impact current and future broadband policies and programs intended to improve broadband availability and adoption throughout the nation. As broadband technology advances, commercially available download and upload speeds will likely increase, and the level at which broadband benchmark threshold speeds should be set is likely to remain controversial. Accordingly, the FCC’s annual Section 706 determination is likely to be contentious as long as it is seen by stakeholders as providing a justification for current or future FCC regulatory or deregulatory policies.