US FCC redefines "broadband speed" as 100Mbps minimum for downloads
"Broadband speed" was 25Mbps for the last eight years.
Photo by JESHOOTS.COM on Unsplash.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) of the USA has changed the definition of broadband speeds for American households, the first major update in eight years.
According to its official statement, high-speed fixed broadband is now benchmarked at a minimum of 100Mbps for download speeds and 20Mbps for uploads.
This is a 4x increase from the 2015 definition of broadband speeds: 25Mbps for downloads and 3Mbps for uploads.
This is on top of its long-term goal of expecting 1Gbps downloads and 500Mbps uploads for American residents and citizens.
According to Ars Technica, something as "symbolic" as redefining Internet speeds has greater meaning within its political spheres, where there has "...been a clear partisan divide on the speed standard, with Democrats pushing for a higher benchmark and Republicans arguing that it shouldn't be raised".
In that regard, Singapore's quite lucky when it comes to high-speed Internet adoption, with telcos offering 1Gbps home broadband plans since 2014 and further plans to have 85% of residential households getting 1Gbps speeds by 2026.
In case you've missed it, our local telcos also already offer 10Gbps home fibre broadband plans (1, 2, 3, 4). However, it's still early days for most users, as Wi-Fi 7 needs time to become mainstream among devices and routers.
Source: US Federal Communications Commission, via Ars Technica
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