The FCC finally increased the definition of broadband from 25/3 Mbps to 100/20 Mbps. The change was too long in coming. This should have been done when Ajit Pai headed the FCC, but politics got in the way. It should have happened when Congress set the definition to 100/20 Mbps in the BEAD grant rules over two years ago – but again, politics interfered.
Coming four or five years too late, the 100/20 Mbps definition of broadband is not only not forward-looking, the new definition of broadband is out of sync with the market. Consider the following table that comes from OpenVault that shows how broadband subscriptions have changed in the country since before the pandemic.
| Dec 2019 | Dec 2024 | |
| Under 50 Mbps | 22% | 6% |
| 50 – 99 Mbps | 24% | 4% |
| 100 – 199 Mbps | 37% | 16% |
| 200 – 499 Mbps | 11% | 34% |
| 500 – 999 Mbps | 4% | 7% |
| 1 Gbps | 3% | 33% |
Just before the pandemic, 46% of households were subscribing to speeds under 100 Mbps. Today, only 10% of households buy slower speeds – and many of them are likely in rural areas where they have no other option. The numbers have flipped since the pandemic and 40% of households are now subscribing to speeds of 500 Mbps or faster.
Every time I write a blog about broadband speeds, a few ISPs will respond, saying that people don’t need faster broadband. The first time I heard that sentiment was a unified response from the CEO of every big cable company, who said the same thing when Google upset the market by introducing gigabit broadband. The reality is that it doesn’t matter what people need – what matters is what they are willing to buy. The table above shows that people want to buy faster broadband when given the option. I look at that table, and it’s hard to conclude anything other than the public broadband is something faster than 200 Mbps.
What’s missing in the above chart is any recognition of the importance of upload broadband speeds. I think many consumers who upgrade to faster speeds do so because of issues with upload speeds. Serious gamers and folks who work from home with large data files will tell you that the new 20 Mbps definition of upload broadband is massively obsolete.
Unfortunately, the definition of broadband has political and financial overtones. It determines where grant money can be spent. Upping the definition of broadband also has market consequences. Any ISP that is offering speeds less than 100/20 Mbps today is no longer selling broadband. They might as well be selling dial-up, because even the slow-to-change FCC says that what they are selling is obsolete and is something other than broadband.
It’s hard to say if changing the definition of broadband has any practical impact. It’s possible that this kind of announcement will filter down through the public and cause folks buying slower connections to search for something faster.
The natural question is, what’s the next step in defining broadband? My bet is that the FCC is going to rest on its laurels for a while after finally getting through the politics and making this change. It took nine years to move the definition from 25/3 to 100/20 Mbps. Hopefully, the FCC won’t wait another nine years. Congress already said that 100/20 Mbps is obsolete when it said that federal broadband grants ought to be spent to build gigabit networks. The OpenVault table above says that the public’s desire for gigabit broadband is already here today.
Not this again. People only pick what they have to choose from. If the cable and fiber companies that serve the bulk of the US population in high density areas would move all their service plans up 200Mbps then by your logic it would “prove” that clients are wanting faster service, because the majority of American’s are now subscribed to faster service than they were last year. That’s just totally bogus statistics.
What I’d like to see is what % of people are subscribed to the slowest speed currently offered by the ISP that they are using. That would speak volumes more than this flawed statistic. It would show that people are only being drug into faster and faster speeds as the cable and fiber companies stop offering slower speeds.
Pricing of the upload speed is the key point from cables！
Selection range of the upload speed from cables is another key point！