FCC Definition of “broadband Internet” always lags behind the reality of actual user needs, by about a decade.
Various sources show that Internet bandwidth consumption increases at about 29% CAGR. If you extrapolate from the previous increases and intervals of the FCC's changes, the definition of broadband should be a minimum of 100Mbit/100Mbit in 2021. When I hear incumbent providers insisting that 25/3 is still good enough, my answer is: "sure, I can agree with that, if you can do that PER DEVICE in the home." They don't like that argument. The only reason 25/3 is still the FCC definition is because of lobbying by those that are still limited by twisted pair copper infrastructure. On Thu, May 27, 2021 at 8:40 PM Eric Dugas via NANOG <nanog@nanog.org> wrote: > I'm not in the US but in Canada it's been 50/10 since 2016 and we're just > "almost" there yet. IMO the target should have been more like 100/30 or > even 50 of upload. > > 100/100 might be a bit short sighted considering it'll take years to > accomplish the necessary last-mile/distribution upgrades in rural areas. > > On Thu, May 27, 2021 at 8:31 PM Sean Donelan <s...@donelan.com> wrote: > >> >> What should be the new minimum speed for "broadband" in the U.S.? >> >> >> This is the list of past minimum broadband speed definitions by year >> >> year speed >> >> 1999 200 kbps in both directions (this was chosen as faster than >> dialup/ISDN speeds) >> >> 2000 200 kbps in at least one direction (changed because too many >> service >> providers had 128 kbps upload) >> >> 2010 4 mbps down / 1 mbps up >> >> 2015 25 Mbps down / 3 Mbps up (wired) >> 5 Mbps down / 1 Mbps up (wireless) >> >> 2021 ??? / ??? (some Senators propose 100/100 mbps) >> >> Not only in major cities, but also rural areas >> >> Note, the official broadband definition only means service providers >> can't >> advertise it as "broadband" or qualify for subsidies; not that they must >> deliver better service. >> >> -- Jim Troutman, jamesltrout...@gmail.com Pronouns: he/him/his 207-514-5676 (cell)