News

New FCC rules raise the bar for high speed Internet

19 Jun, 2008

The CWA Speed Matters campaign can claim another victory -- this time at the FCC. As part of our Speed Matters campaign, CWA called on the FCC to increase its definition of "high speed" -- a definition that had not changed for nine years -- and to improve its broadband data collection.

The FCC did this in an Order adopted in March, and finally released on June 12. CWA was heavily involved in this rulemaking.

In the Broadband Data Order, the FCC increased its definition of broadband from 200 kbps to 768 kbps. The FCC Order requires broadband providers to report the number of broadband subscribers by technology at 8 different tiers of upstream and downstream speeds, ranging from 200 kbps to 100 megabits per second. The reporting must be at the detailed census tract level.

While the new definition is not quite the 2 megabits downstream and 1 megabit upstream that CWA recommended, the FCC did adopt other CWA recommendations -- especially to collect data on upstream and downstream speeds. Most applications today -- uploading video to YouTube, teleconferencing, telemedicine, interactive distance learning -- require two-way communication, and this Order recognizes that.

Further, the FCC adopted another CWA Speed Matters recommendation. For the first time the FCC will collect detailed information about the actual number of subscribers by census tract, moving away from its flawed methodology of claiming an area had broadband if there was only one subscriber in a zip code.

The Order asks for further comment to determine how to require reporting on broadband availability in order to create a broadband map of America --another CWA Speed Matters recommendation.

The FCC appears to have been impressed by CWA's self-reported Speed Test, noting that it intends to establish a voluntary registry that would allow broadband customers to report the actual speeds of service received. More than 320,000 people having taken the Speed Test over the past two years, and CWA will soon release the results in the second annual report on Internet speed in all 50 states, following up on last year's report.

Finally, the FCC Order makes passage of S.1492 -- the Broadband Data Improvement Act now pending in the Senate -- more important than ever. S.1492 and the companion HR.3919 that has already passed the House of Representatives -- complements the new requirements in the FCC Broadband Data Order. S1492 would make funds available to states to collect broadband data and to create local public-private partnerships to develop community
plans to accelerate broadband availability and adoption.