Cable lobbying group NCTA–The Internet & Television Association is asking the Federal Communications Commission to reject a proposal made by Google Fiber, ALLO and Ting to increase the government’s definition of “broadband’ as symmetrical 100 megabits-per-second speeds.
”The arguments for such an approach are disconnected from the reality of broadband user experience, investment, and deployment and would yield results that have a variety of negative consequences,“ reads a letter filed earlier this week by NCTA to the FCC.
The group added that “consumer [internet] usage has always been highly asymmetrical, and that this pattern has continued in recent years notwithstanding the widespread use of video streaming and the COVID-era shift to greater use of remote work and learning.”
Meanwhile, the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association (WISPA) said the proposed benchmarks “can only be established in the future, when they become relevant based on marketplace forces and technological advancement.”
And for its part, the NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association is pushing for adoption of a lesser standard, 100 Mbps upstream/20 Mbps downstream, claiming the majority of internet service providers are “quite capable” of delivering those speeds today.
The current standard of 25 Mbps downstream/3 Mbps upstream was established back in 2015.
In their letter to the FCC last week, Google Fiber, ALLO and Ting argued that the current standard is “outdated and no longer meets the needs of consumers.”
