Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel recently proposed raising the minimum broadband speed requirement in the U.S. to 100 Mbps for downloads and 20 Mbps for uploads.
The move was generally well-received, but long overdue at a time when median download and upload speeds among U.S. service providers still rank below several other nations.
Still, Fiber Broadband Association President and CEO Gary Bolton said the FCC’s ongoing focus on speed minimums is a misguided approach.
Bolton told Fierce Telecom via email, “Our industry has moved beyond the ‘speed test’ and is now focused on the ‘experience test.’ We would encourage the FCC to not set ‘new’ broadband definitions that are already obsolete, but to look toward the future and establish definitions that will support the vision and innovation of the Metaverse and beyond. They can do that with definitions that support symmetric speeds, single-digit [millisecond] latency requirements, and enable concurrency.”
He explained that these are the criteria that Metaverse driver Meta, owner of Facebook, identified during a keynote speech at the Fiber Broadband Association’s Fiber Connect 2022 conference in Nashville last month
“As we look to the immediate future, we are at the early stages of the next version of the Internet, the Metaverse… Meta delivered a keynote that described their vision of the Metaverse, and to fulfill that vision they outlined three key criteria for the nation’s broadband network.”
These criteria include:
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Symmetric Bandwidth – being able to send as much information as you receive
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Low Latency – significantly reducing the time it takes for information to go from its source to its destination
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Concurrency – providing a consistent quality of experience, regardless of the number of participants or where they are physically located
Bolton continued, "Fortunately, we are at the beginning of the largest investment in broadband in history with nearly $130 billion in State and Federal subsidies that are being deployed. That funding will largely fund fiber projects that will deliver nearly unlimited broadband capacity and ultra-low latency. In any areas not built with fiber, the programs have minimum build requirements of 100/100Mbps (Treasury, RUS Reconnect) or 100/20Mbps (NTIA BEAD)."
He added, “In short, the FCC’s plan to move their definition of broadband from 25/3 Mbps to 100/20 Mbps is a moot point."