Defining "High Speed"

What Americans have come to expect from "high speed Internet" is far slower than connections in other countries around the world.

The FCC’s definitions of high speed and advanced services are too low.  The FCC decided to define “high speed” as 200 kbps in one direction and “advanced services” as 200 kbps in both download and upload directions. Such speeds are quite inadequate for such important applications as high quality video communications. The FCC must immediately change its definition of broadband.

The issue of broadband capacity and speed is critical because it defines what is possible. Dial-up connections of 56 kilobits per second (Kbps) or DSL connections of 200 Kbps (the FCC definition of high speed) are too slow for many important applications. Some countries have already established goals of 100 megabits per second (Mbps) both in terms of download and upload speeds. In the US, speeds most often range from 1 to 3 Mbps download and 50-384 Kbps upload. Yet, even these speeds are too slow; for example, 6 Mbps are needed for such important interactive features as videoconferencing.