FCC to propose a minimum 100mbps to qualify as broadband, with a future goal of 1gbps

The internet needs to be classified as a utility, living without it is just not possible in the world we have created.

Should be 1gbps asymmetric now, with a near future goal of 1gbps symmetric.

If the federal government is regulating them can we admit they're a fucking utility already and stop allowing them to gouge prices when they have more money than they could feasibly spend?

Can you imagine if we said "by 2035 every American household in our electric grid will also be connected to the internet at a speed of 1gbps"?

Does this really matter. We aren't getting it anyway.

The telcom/cable companies are just going to take the "broadband" money, build out a couple of neighborhoods, claim it is too hard, and then keep all the money.

They have already done it many times. Free taxpayer money with zero repercussions. Why would they do anything different.

We really need some upstream minimums as well. That causes so much lag for me. Most plans are 1 up even with 100 down. I have a 200/10 plan now and it's difficult to do work with the maybe 5 that I get in practice if I'm lucky, especially after overhead from VPN.

I could give a shit what they call it. How about enforcing some god damn price restrictions or make data caps illegal? Speed means little otherwise

Thats great but can we demand some decent UPLOAD to?

cries in 300down measally 10 up

Can’t wait til they give another few hundred billion to ISPs who turn it into bonuses instead of infra improvement

As it should have been 5 years ago. Maybe even more.

5 years late but better than never.

I did telecom work about 5 years ago

It was shocking the amount of area that depends on a low-quality copper wire infrastructure.

I don't know if that changed in 5 years, but companies are going to have a hard time getting that replaced nationwide

Cries in Australian

I just don't get it. Why not making upload speed same as download speed?

100 mbps? That's 100 millibits per second, or 0.1 bits per second. I'd certainly hope for better bandwidth than one bit every ten seconds; that's slower than smoke signals.

You might have figured it out by now, but "megabits per second" is abbreviated as "Mbps" with an uppercase m; yeah, it's kinda pedantic, but using lowercase means it's a millibit, which is much, much smaller. The same applies to "gigabits per second," which should be expressed as "Gbps."

At any rate, thank you for posting this, it really is good news. And about time they did this, too.

It should also require allowing incoming connections. Too much ISPs, especially mobile, are gives one-way Internet now. Basically like having a phone line with no phone number.

If I could also get 100mbps for less than $80 a month that'd be great.

I just hope Ofcom will have a similar idea for the UK. Currently you only have a "universal service obligation" for 10Mbps, and if you can be provided by 4G then Openreach doesn't have to upgrade your old copper line. Large areas of my city are still copper only.

Slightly off topic but I seriously hope the Dems have a good plan to tell the general public of the US, just how much Biden and his administration has done for good progressive legislation this far.

Go get them FCC! Lets move into the future.

I'm out here living on 10 Mbps up / 1 Mbps down.

I hate living in LATAM.

Thanks Biden

Me over here with 40mbps taking days to download games.

What are people doing with this high bandwidth?

Look less then 2 years ago I was in the upper 20s at the best of times. Fiber rolled in. I got gigabit and its spoiled me very quickly. I'm not sure why I'd need more but I'm sure they'll find a reason eventually.

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I just did a speed test. 329 down, 22 up. I pay like 45 bucks a month and it's totally sufficient. I pirate and stream shit all the time, manage a home media server, have a bunch of smart home bullshit. I don't need 100mbps. Not yet at least.