FCC Approves 25/3 Mbps Standard
The FCC raised to 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload the standard for determining whether broadband is being sufficiently deployed around the country Thursday, over objections of Republican commissioners and ISPs. The 3-2 vote had been expected (see 1501280056). The commission accepted the conclusion in the agency’s broadband progress report that, under the new standard, broadband is not being deployed in a reasonable or timely fashion. That finding requires the agency to take “immediate” steps to improve deployment under the Telecommunications Act's Section 706. A separate party-line 3-2 vote approved a notice of inquiry seeking ideas on how to improve broadband deployment.
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The increase from 4 Mbps download/1 Mbps upload is “arbitrary,” said Commissioner Ajit Pai. The decision was motivated by the agency’s desire to “seize new, almost limitless authority to regulate the broadband marketplace,” he said. To preserve its authority by finding inadequate deployment, the agency conducted an “intentionally flawed” analysis, said Commissioner Mike O’Rielly, calling the decision a “charade.”
The broadband report asks whether future inquiries should ask whether wireline and wireless should be considered in determining the adequacy of deployment, said Wireline Bureau Chief Julie Veach. Wireless and satellite weren't considered in Thursday's determination of inadequacy. O’Rielly said the possibility that both technologies may have to meet a threshold sets the stage for making it more likely that the commission will continue to find deployment isn't reasonable and timely.
Chairman Tom Wheeler acknowledged that future FCCs will have to grapple with whether broadband will ever be sufficiently deployed as speeds and expectations continue to increase, in a news conference. The vote was “Act I” in actions the commission is taking to ensure broadband will be “fast, fair and open,” Wheeler said. The commission will act at its February 26 on it's much-debated net neutrality rules and on rules pre-empting state anti-municipal broadband laws so communities will be able to determine their own online future, he said.
The broadband speed debate involved differing views of how the status of broadband should be judged. To the FCC majority, the higher standard reflects broadband usage in modern households, where several family members often use tablets, laptops and other devices at the same time. Seventeen percent of Americans, and 53 percent of rural residents, lack access to 25 Mbps/3 Mbps speeds, the agency said in a news release. Two-thirds of residents in tribal areas and U.S. territories lack access to broadband at those speeds, the agency said. Americans are increasingly subscribing to broadband at the faster speeds when they’re available, the release said. The baseline should be what the majority of Americans can get, Wheeler said. Saying roughly 80 percent in the country have access to the 25 Mbps/3 Mbps speeds, he said, “We have a responsibility to that 20 percent.“
The commission should “dream big” in setting the standard, said Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, who backed the increase, though she thinks the download standard should be 100 Mbps. The 25 Mbps/3 Mbps standard is necessary to support technological advances, Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said. “Without ubiquitous broadband, and absent the means to connect, these incredible inventions are simply gadgets and flashy expensive toys for us to gaze, marvel and wonder.” Clyburn backed expanding Lifeline to increase deployment. “As consumers adopt and demand more from their platforms and devices, the need for broadband will increase, requiring robust networks to be in place in order to keep up,” Clyburn said. “Broadband speeds of yesteryear are woefully inadequate today and beyond.” To Republicans, though, the standard was excessive. Pai noted the agency requires only 10 Mbps/1 Mbps speeds for Connect America Fund recipients (see 1412110060).
Pai and O’Rielly criticized the NOI for not raising specific ideas for increasing deployment. The actions are a “Kafka-esque twist,” Pai said. Removing barriers would accelerate deployment, he said. But the “FCC seems dead set to do exactly the opposite,” Pai said, citing the expected reclassification of broadband its IP transition rulemaking, which he said could force broadband providers to continue to invest in legacy systems instead of in deployment.
The best way to increase broadband deployment "is through the removal of regulatory barriers to investment,” said USTelecom President Walter McCormick in a news release. The group urged the agency to grant its petition to forbear from a number of legacy phone regulations (see 1411060021), “expedite USF reform, and to refrain from using this redefinition of broadband to expand federal regulation and government management of the Internet." NCTA is “troubled that the Commission majority has arbitrarily chosen a definition of broadband in its Section 706 report that ignores how millions of consumers currently access the Internet," said the association in a statement. "Instead of an accurate assessment of America’s broadband marketplace and the needs and uses of consumers, the FCC action is industrial policy that is not faithful to Congress’s direction in Section 706 to assess the market, but a clear effort to justify and expand the bounds of the FCC's own authority.”