Ahead of the weekend, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission announced that broadband deployment in the United States is lagging, particularly throughout rural America.
The FCC believes broadband deployment is trailing far behind “today’s advanced, high-quality voice, data, graphics and video offerings.”
The FCC’s statement comes immediately after the completion of the 2015 Broadband Progress Report.
Using this updated service benchmark, the 2015 report finds that 55 million Americans – 17 percent of the population – lack access to advanced broadband. Moreover, a significant digital divide remains between urban and rural America: Over half of all rural Americans lack access to 25 Mbps/3 Mbps service.
“Reflecting advances in technology, market offerings by broadband providers and consumer demand, the FCC updated its broadband benchmark speeds to 25 megabits per second (Mbps) for downloads and 3 Mbps for uploads,” the FCC announced yesterday. “The 4 Mbps/1 Mbps standard set in 2010 is dated and inadequate for evaluating whether advanced broadband is being deployed to all Americans in a timely way, the FCC found.”
To review the entire FCC announcement, click here.
