What Happened

In 2024, the FCC raised its broadband benchmark to 100Mbps downstream and 20Mbps upstream, setting the new standard whether deployment is reasonable and timely. a long- 1Gbps download speeds paired with 500Mbps upload speeds, saying “as a guidepost for evaluating our efforts to encourage deployment.”

Republican Brendan Carr, chairman, -term goal. He proposed abolishing , and the change was finalized on August 14 ’s latest broadband deployment report. The reports are mandated by Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act.

“ return to following the plain language of Section 706, proposal from the Notice [of Inquiry] to abolish without replacement the long- 1,000/500 Mbps established in the 2024 Report,” . “A long- mentioned in Section 706 and could appear to violate our obligation to conduct our analysis in a technologically neutral manner. At present, it is impossible to predict long-term technological developments and the evolution of consumer preferences.”

comments submitted by cable industry wireless industry group CTIA “support our reasoning for abolishing the long-term goal.”

Why It Matters

gigabit goal “may be unreasonably prejudicial to technologies such as satellite and fixed wireless that presently do not support such speeds.” ’s report, eliminating the goal merely to help providers of slower technology.

“We disagree with commenters arguing that our concern about technological neutrality merely serves to accommodate technologies that may currently offer slower speeds,” . “At present, nature of future consumer preferences and, considering required by the statute positive purpose (as discussed herein), we believe it prudent to abolish it.”

“Lowering standards to ensure certain technologies can meet a benchmark is the opposite of technological neutrality,” Gomez said. “Technological neutrality requires that we evaluate all technologies against the same standard and support perform best. standards entirely to allow certain technologies to flourish despite their shortfalls.”

The change does not affect grant programs that require ISPs to deploy certain speeds in exchange for government funding. network deployments ’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund are required to have gigabit speeds.

What Comes Next

“ standard that funding awardees , other providers should be working towards providing service speeds,” Gomez said.

Section 706 requires determine whether broadband is being deployed “on a reasonable and timely basis” to all Americans. If the answer is no, “take immediate action to accelerate deployment of such capability by removing barriers to infrastructure investment and by promoting competition in the telecommunications market.”

Democratic-led commissions have generally industry isn’t doing enough to make broadband universally available, while Republican-led commissions opposite. maintained that tradition in the latest report.

“Today, we conclude our annual inquiry by finding that deployment of advanced telecommunications capability to all Americans meets the statutory standard of being reasonable and timely,” the FCC report said.

-2025, “approximately 94 percent of Americans had access to fixed wireline service benchmark of 100/20 Mbps,” percentage was 97 percent when including fixed wireless service. Including satellite service 99.7 percent, .

Many Americans choice for modern wireline service. In addition to the 5.7 percent of US households without any 100/20 Mbps providers, 40.6 percent of households broadband provider offering those speeds. When including fixed wireless service, 3 percent of households had zero options and 20 percent option.

In addition to availability, the Biden-era FCC’s 2024 report considered broadband. The Trump-era FCC called that a mistake, saying that “the 2024 Report strayed from the statute’s plain language, which requires consideration of ‘availability’—not adoption, affordability, or equitable access.”

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