Re: New minimum speed for US broadband connections

[Jim Troutman <jamesltroutman () gmail com>]

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 <sean () 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,
jamesltroutman () gmail com
Pronouns: he/him/his
207-514-5676 (cell)