INCOMPAS, whose members include both competitive broadband providers like Sonic and IdeaTek and edge provider giants Amazon, Netflix and Twitter, is pushing the FCC to move to a baseline 1 Gig definition of high-speed fixed broadband internet access ASAP.
That would definitely help multiple-person households handle the streaming, online purchasing, and tweeting heavy lifting, along with the Zooming and other online chores of an increasingly work-from-home world.
That 1 gig definition would mean that anyone not offered that speed would not qualify as having access to high-speed broadband by the FCC's reckoning, and providers not supplying that speed could potentially be overbuilt with government subsidy money.
It could also subject them to potential new regulation since the FCC is empowered to regulate to insure that advanced communications is being rolled out to all Americans in a timely fashion.
FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel has proposed upping the FCC's current 25 Mbps download/ 3 Mbps upload speed definition to 100 Mbps/20 Mbps, with an eye toward 1 Gig/500 Mbps down the road, and has sought comment on that proposal.
In a letter to Rosenworcel, INCOMPAS said that aspirational goal of 1 gig downstream should be the new definition (it did not offer an upload minimum). It promoted the letter with the headline: "Faster Speeds or Slower Economy."
INCOMPAS has been making that case for 1 gig a while, pointing out to Rosenworcel it called on the FCC back in 2017 to set 1 Gig as the new definition for fixed broadband.
"We are looking to the Commission’s leadership to establish a new broadband speed goal that enables all Americans to access high-speed internet no matter where they live or work. It is time to set that goal to 1 Gigabit," INCOMPAS said. ■
